Nintendo’s documented pre-video-game history starts with playing cards: its official company timeline says Fusajiro Yamauchi began making and selling Hanafuda in Kyoto in 1889. The more sensational stories—that Nintendo was tied to yakuza customers, ran a taxi service, or operated love hotels—are repeated in secondary sources, but the available evidence here does not establish them as verified parts of the company’s history.
What did Nintendo do before video games?
Nintendo began as a playing-card maker. Its official company history says Fusajiro Yamauchi began manufacturing and selling Hanafuda, traditional Japanese playing cards, in Kyoto in 1889. The timeline records a second card milestone in 1902, when Nintendo began making and selling western-style playing cards in Japan.
The transition toward toys and games came much later. In 1963, the company changed its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and began manufacturing and selling games and toys alongside playing cards, according to that same timeline. These dated milestones provide a documented outline of how a card business expanded into the broader play industry.
Did Nintendo really run a taxi service and love hotels?
Those stories circulate, but they should not be treated as established facts on the strength of the sources cited here. A secondary academic thesis and a bibliography reproduced in a USPTO filing repeat claims about a taxi company called Daiya and a love-hotel business. Neither is a contemporaneous company record confirming Nintendo owned or operated those businesses, and the filing’s bibliography is not independent proof of the claims it cites.
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#1 Best Overall
- Nintendo
- Japanese Playing Cards Game
- Body size (approximately): [per sheet] vertical 5.3 ~ 3.2 ~ horizontal thickness 0.1cm
- Quantity: 48 cards, one empty card
- Color: Black
Nintendo’s official timeline does not mention a taxi operation or love hotels. That omission does not prove the stories false; it means the official chronology does not substantiate them. The sources available here also do not safely establish dates, duration, scale, or operating details for the alleged businesses.
What is known about the yakuza connection?
Some retellings associate Hanafuda sales or gambling venues with the yakuza. But the official company history documents Nintendo’s card milestones without establishing a direct relationship with yakuza groups. The secondary material cited here is not enough to verify a partnership, ownership connection, or other direct tie, so that allegation remains unconfirmed in this account.
Rank #2
- Color: Red
- Package size (approx.): Width 1.8 x Depth 2.4 x Height 2.8 inches (4.5 x 6 x 7
- Age Group: Kids
- Type: Single Item
How to separate documented history from repeated anecdotes
| Claim or milestone | Source type | What it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Hanafuda manufacturing and sales began in Kyoto in 1889 | Nintendo’s official company history | A dated company milestone |
| Western-style playing-card production began in 1902 | Nintendo’s official company history | A dated company milestone |
| Name changed to Nintendo Co., Ltd.; games and toys added in 1963 | Nintendo’s official company history | A dated company milestone |
| Daiya taxi service and love-hotel operation | Claims repeated in secondary material and a filing bibliography | The anecdotes are in circulation; the cited material does not independently confirm operations |
| Direct yakuza connection | Repeated claim; not established by the official chronology cited here | Unverified by these sources |
Where Hanafuda fits into Nintendo’s history today
Hanafuda is not merely a story about Nintendo’s distant origins: the company still presents the cards as part of its heritage. Nintendo announced that the Nintendo Museum in Uji would open on October 2, 2024, with product-history exhibits and an activity in which visitors can make Hanafuda cards and learn to play. Its 2021 Hanafuda feature also revisits the card game as Nintendo’s first product. These official materials support the connection between Hanafuda and the company’s origins; they do not establish that any modern deck exactly reproduces the original cards.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Nintendo Japanese Playing Cards Game Set Hanafuda President Black
- The bestseller product which should be called the pronoun of Japanese playing cards! ！
- Entering "how to play" manual
Rank #4
- Nintendo Japanese Playing Cards Game Set Hanafuda Marufuku TENGU Black
- full-fledged Japanese playing cards.
- Color: Black
- Package size (approximately): width 32 ~ back 6 ~ height 65mm
- Quality is high
Rank #3
- Good for children
- Good for Teenagers
- Color: Black
- Package size (approx): width 4.5 ~ back 6 ~ high 7 cm
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