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Concept
History of Nintendo
Summary
The history of Nintendo is from 1889 to the present, starting as a playing-card company to eventually becoming a multinational consumer electronics conglomerate. It has always remained headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards. In the mid-1900s, the company licensed third-party card graphics, such as Disney characters. In the 1960s, it expanded into countless varieties of toys, including original designs by Gunpei Yokoi. In the 1980s, it became one of the most prominent figures in the video game industry including designs by Shigeru Miyamoto such as mascot Mario and breakthrough hit arcade video game Donkey Kong (1981). It later expanded into creating video game consoles, games, and accessories. As of 2011, Nintendo Co., Ltd. is the largest video game company by revenue.
Nintendo was founded as Yamauchi Nintendo by Fusajiro Yamauchi on September 23, 1889. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed hanafuda. The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but there are no historical records to validate this. The handmade cards soon gained popularity, so Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards.
Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following the common Japanese tradition of mukoyōshi, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda, who then legally took his wife's last name of Yamauchi. In 1929, Fusajiro Yamauchi retired and allowed Kaneda to take over as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established a joint venture with another company and renamed it Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.
In 1947, Sekiryo established a distribution company, Marufuku Co., Ltd., to distribute the hanafuda and several other types of cards produced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Kaneda also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Yamauchi later abandoned his family and did not become company president.
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