 |
The original wooden 1889
building. |
Near the end of Summer 2024, I finally got to return to
Japan and take my family with me. One of the purposes we accomplished was to
make a “pilgrimage” of sorts to the Nintendo Headquarters. Because of that trip
(along with some helpful websites), I was able to get a far better picture of
the history of the company. This post is a summary of my thoughts and what I
learned.
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The "left" part of the original
1889 building next to
the 1933 building. |
I had known for quite a while that Nintendo was started in
the late 1800’s as a playing card company, but until I had watched a
documentary called Playing with Power (narrated by Sean Astin) about it I didn’t
really grasp or appreciate the history.
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The 1933 building, which
extends down the block. |
The Marufuku Nintendo Card Co., or Yamauchi Nintendo Karuta
as it was originally known in Japanese, was founded 23 Sept 1889 in a small
wood building in Kyoto, where they made Hanafuda cards which got around the
government rules of “Western” cards intended for gambling. As their operation
expanded, they built a white brick building with green trim directly adjacent
to the original wooden building in 1933.
Eventually the scattered offices were consolidated in a new
building in 1959 in Kyoto (which has now become the new Nintendo Museum). By this time the major focus of the company was making toys
and board games, though they still made hanafuda as well as themed western decks
of cards. The original buildings were abandoned, but still remained standing.
The 1933 building is now the Marufuku Hotel which displays Nintendo history,
and the original wood building was torn down in 2004 to become a parking lot,
and eventually the land was used to add an annex to the hotel. It’s a shame
that I didn’t make the trip here when I was in Japan in the late 90’s to see
the building myself. Finally, in 2000 their current headquarters buildings were
built – two white square-ish buildings about a block from each other in
downtown Kyoto.
As part of our trip, we walked to the Marufuku Hotel and
took some pictures outside of the building, and then walked around the current
headquarters, though we were not permitted to enter any of the buildings. After
that, we did, however, go to the official Nintendo Store in a Kyoto mall where
I bought some plastic hanafuda cards.
Unfortunately, we were unable to go to the Nintendo Museum. Though it was projected to be done in March of 2024, it wasn't finished until around September. Additionally, tickets are distributed in a lottery system so even if it was open there was a chance we wouldn't have gotten to go anyway.
