1889: Fusajiro Yamauchi founds Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto, Japan, to manufacture hanafuda, Japanese playing cards. Western-style playing cards originally came to Japan in the 16th century with Portuguese traders, but over the ensuing three centuries a variety of different card games were created in Japan. The most popular in the late 1800s were hanafuda, cards […]
The variety of western playing cards they offered were massive, and included decks of various sizes, from poker size to bridge size to whist size, and even really tiny decks.
They also sold Kyoto Souvenir playing cards, a deck meant for foreign tourists in Japan which featured images of various landmarks around Kyoto, as well as Nude Cards, a deck marketed towards adult males which feature scantilly-clad and sometimes nude female models on the faces of the cards.
Oh…Nintendo has QUITE the colorful past. Heh.
Wait until you read about the 60s…
Is that around the time they were supposedly managing love hotels?
Shhhhhh, I specifically didn’t say that so he’d actually research it, and be like “They did WHAT???”
Don’t spoil it!
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Nintendo_playing_cards
Huh.