November 22, 2014 at 11:29Fusajiro Yamauchi: Founder of Nintendo
November 22, 1859 Fusajiro Yamauchi was born. At thirty, he developed a card game and founded his own gaming company. At that time, Japan had a law banning foreign playing cards: the authorities did not want illegal cash games to be distributed in the country. The law has been supported for about 250 years since 1633, and managed to get around it thanks to the creation of Yamauchi’s own deck of cards - Hanafuda. As you can see, Nintendo didn’t start at all with game consoles either.
There were no numbers on the cards in the deck, animals and birds were used, inscription tapes, images of the moon, phoenix and so on. The deck of cards has 12 suits of 4 cards, consists of 48 cards. Each suit is the month of the year to which the plant corresponds: hence the name “Hanafuda” translates as “Floral cards”. They were drawn by hand. One of the most popular flower card games is Coy Coy, read about the rules here .
There is scope for imagination.
In 1907, the ban on decks of a foreign type was canceled - for 270 years it remained in force. Nintendo began producing cards in a foreign style, first for export, and then they took root in Japan. By the way, they sold cards in tobacco stores, for which Yamauchi signed an agreement with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation.
This is a very late deck, released many years after the death of the founder of the company - in the 1960s.
The first Nintendo office was located in this building, for this Yamauchi bought it in 1889. The head office was replaced only in 1933, and even then it was a building in the neighborhood.
And the Nintendo logo originally looked like this.
For 40 years, Fusajiro led the company, which remained the leader in Japan in the playing card market. Only at the age of 70 he retired, appointing his son-in-law as the successor. This is a rather interesting tradition - to leave your son at the head of the company, and if there is none, then the daughter’s husband, who also needs to take the wife’s surname. The son-in-law's name was Shokira Yamauchi, and he was the grandfather of Hiros Yamauchi, to whom we owe the Nintendo gaming business .
There were no numbers on the cards in the deck, animals and birds were used, inscription tapes, images of the moon, phoenix and so on. The deck of cards has 12 suits of 4 cards, consists of 48 cards. Each suit is the month of the year to which the plant corresponds: hence the name “Hanafuda” translates as “Floral cards”. They were drawn by hand. One of the most popular flower card games is Coy Coy, read about the rules here .
There is scope for imagination.
In 1907, the ban on decks of a foreign type was canceled - for 270 years it remained in force. Nintendo began producing cards in a foreign style, first for export, and then they took root in Japan. By the way, they sold cards in tobacco stores, for which Yamauchi signed an agreement with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation.
This is a very late deck, released many years after the death of the founder of the company - in the 1960s.
The first Nintendo office was located in this building, for this Yamauchi bought it in 1889. The head office was replaced only in 1933, and even then it was a building in the neighborhood.
And the Nintendo logo originally looked like this.
For 40 years, Fusajiro led the company, which remained the leader in Japan in the playing card market. Only at the age of 70 he retired, appointing his son-in-law as the successor. This is a rather interesting tradition - to leave your son at the head of the company, and if there is none, then the daughter’s husband, who also needs to take the wife’s surname. The son-in-law's name was Shokira Yamauchi, and he was the grandfather of Hiros Yamauchi, to whom we owe the Nintendo gaming business .