Fusajiro Yamauchi

Fusajirō Yamauchi
山内 房治郎
1st President of Nintendo
In office 23 September 1889 – 1929
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Sekiryo Kaneda
Personal details
Born	(1859-11-22)22 November 1859 Kyoto, Japan
Died	1 January 1940(1940-01-01) (aged 80) Kyoto, Japan
Cause of death	Stroke
Children	Tei (daughter), ??? (daughter)
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Founder of Nintendo

Fusajirō Yamauchi (山内 房治郎, Yamauchi Fusajirō, 22 November 1859 – 1940), originally born as Fusajirō Fukui (福井 房治郎, Fukui Fusajirō), was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded Yamauchi Nintendo, later known as Nintendo. Yamauchi lived in Kyoto, Japan and had a wife and two daughters—one of whom was Tei Yamauchi, who later married Sekiryo Kaneda, the sucessor and second president of Nintendo.

Early life

Fusajiro Fukui was born on November 22, 1868, as the oldest son of Sôsuke Fukui, a craftsperson. Fusajiro took the name Yamauchi after an arranged marriage with one of the daughters of the Yamauchi family, who owned a company named Haigan dealing with lime. Since the Yamauchi family had no male heirs to inherit the company, Fusajiro was adopted by the Yamauchis and became the heir to his adoptive father, Naoshichi Yamauch.

Shortly after, in 1885, Fusajiro inherited the company at the age of 17 and renamed it Haikyô.

Picture of the Haikyō main store taken from the Takasegawa Main Bridge, circa 1917. Barrels of cement are visible on the left.

Yamauchi Fusajirô Shôten or Yamauchi Nintendo

See also: History of Nintendo § 1889–1949: Hanafuda cards

In the context of the Meiji Restoration, in 1885, gambling laws were relaxed in Japan, and Hanafuda cards, which were previously banned, become legal. Fusajiro, after having opened other shops selling lime in Kyoto, was inspired by both the booming business of Hanafuda and his personal taste for the game. He played it regularly and decides to use his skills as a craftsperson to open a factory building handmade Hanafuda decks.

On 23 September 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi opened Yamauchi Fusajirô Shôten, also known as Yamauchi Nintendo (Other sources also mention the name Nintendo Koppai) on the location of an unoccupied house he bought. Fusajiro made the Hanafuda decks using mulberries' bark, clay and a wood-block printing machine he himself designed. The Hanafuda decks sold by Nintendo, known as Daitôryô (i.e President) decks, recognisable thanks to the illustration of Napoleon that decorate them, became the most successful in Kyoto in a few years.

Nintendo's first headquarters in 1889.

In 1890, Nintendo expands its products and starts selling Uta-garuta decks but soon after starts struggling to sell its Hanafuda and Uta-garuta due to the competition and a shrinking market around its location. Fusajiro then has the idea of using the Hanafuda cards of lesser quality that were thrown away and sell them in new decks called "Tengu" which are sold at a lesser price than Daitôryô decks. Additionally, Fusajiro decide to pursue the market of clubhouses. Indeed, due to the fact these places never use the same deck twice to prevent cheating, a lot of decks are used. In the end, Fusajiro manage to conclude a contract with around 70 of them, with each one using at least 50 decks per night.

Nintendo and trump cards

Just as Hanafuda cards were allowed again in 1885 so too did occidental playing cards (Standard 52-card deck) become allowed, these western cards so called "Trump" by the japanese population really starts knowing success in 1886.It's by witnessing their popularity and the fact that they are only bought by the wealthy upper class due to their high prices from exportation that Fusajiro has the idea to produce himself Trump cards instead of importing them.

Although 1907 is the most commonly cited as the date which Nintendo started selling their own manufactured western playing cards, a 1974 presentation flyer by the company cites 1911 as the year trump decks started being made. Moreover, Nintendo's website lists 1902 as the year "Mr. Yamauchi started manufacturing the first western-style playing cards in Japan.". According to author Florent Gorges, the date 1902 come from the website of Watada Insatsujô (Watada Printings), a printing company which still works with Nintendo today and do so since 1899. Indeed, on their website is written the line (translated) "1902 : Beginning of the prints of "Trump" playing cards for Nintendo Koppaï".

The decision by Fusajiro to start selling western playing cards made in Japan happens at a fortuitous time for Nintendo, the same year, the imperial government put in place a new tax on mah-jong and cards producers called the "Koppaï Zei" or "Karuta Zei". This tax of 20 sen created to prepare for future armed conflicts (The sen is a subdivision of the Japanese yen which became obsolete in 1954.) doubles the prize of most Hanafuda decks which were also sold for around 20 sen leading to more than half of the main producers of Hanafuda cards to close shops. These western cards serve then the role of a lifeline to Nintendo which is the only company selling these made-in-Japan western cards at the time.

Japanese- wide distribution

Limited to the Osaka and Kyoto region, Fusajiro has the idea to create a distribution network to expand Nintendo operations throughout all of Japan. Something unheard of at the time in which only drugs and tobacco possess that kind of distribution.

And so in 1907, Fusajiro expanded the operations of Nintendo by making a deal with Nihon Senbai (today Japan Tobacco) so that Nintendo cards were sold in cigarette shops in all of Japan. By Fusajiro's death in 1929, Nintendo was the largest playing-card company in Japan.

Personal details

Without a son, Fusajiro decided to arrange a marriage in 1905 between Sekiryô Kaneda, an employee which started working at Nintendo at the beginning of the decade and one of his two daughters, Tei. During the next decades, Sekiryô would lead the Nintendo and Haikyô companies with his stepfather until 1929, the year in which Fusajiro died and Sekiryô Yamauchi inherited both companies.