Fusajiro Yamauchi

Fusajiro Yamauchi
Known for	1st President of Nintendo (1889-1929)
Birth	November 22, 1859
Death	January 1940

Fusajiro Yamauchi (山内 房治郎, November 22, 1859 - January 1940) was a Japanese businessman, craftsman, and artist. He founded Nintendo Playing Cards (任天堂骨牌, Nintendo Koppai) in Kyoto on September 3, 1889 following the relaxation of laws against playing cards in Japan.

Nintendo (任天堂) is literally translated into English as entrust the company to heaven, and is commonly translated as leave luck to heaven. The company started out making playing cards that were used in gambling parlors.

His son-in-law, Sekiryo Yamauchi, was the second president of Nintendo, and his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi was the third.

Personal life

Fusajiro Yamauchi was born on November 22, 1859. When he reached adulthood, he married and had a daughter named Tei. Tei would later marry a man named Sekiryo Kaneda, who took the surname Yamauchi as Fusajiro had no male heirs.

Formation of Nintendo

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Playing Cards in an area of Kyoto that was well known for Yakuza activity. Yamauchi used this to his advantage, originally producing handmade hanafuda playing cards, or flower cards. Nintendo's hanafuda cards soon began to be used in Yakuza gambling parlors.

When demand began to overwhelm his ability to produce the handmade cards on his own, Yamauchi hired a small team to help him create the cards. His cards had become so popular that by the early 20th century, he opened up another card shop in Osaka, Japan, and began selling other card games of both Eastern and Western origin.

In 1929, at the age of 60, he retired and left his son-in-law Sekiryo Yamauchi in charge of the company. Fusajiro Yamauchi died in 1940, at the age of 80, as a result of a stroke.