Hanafuda and Nintendo: gambling entertainment from the gaming industry giant

Nintendo, known for its video games and consoles, was founded on September 23, 1889. Then it was called Nintendo Karuta, and it was headed By Fusajiro Yamauchi. The company immediately began producing decks of the popular card game hanafuda. The images were drawn by hand, and the illustrations were made in a special Japanese style. Thanks to its products, the company quickly and firmly established itself in the toy market. In 1947, the successor of the former President of Nintendo, Sekiryo Yamauchi, became the founder of another company, Marufuku Nintendo Co, which he created to distribute hanafuda and other card game sets. In the 1970s, the company built its own factory that produced toys for children and began to expand its product range.

Hanafuda appeared thanks to the Portuguese missionary Franciscus Xaverius, who in the XVI century brought with him a deck of cards: a set of 48 cards divided into 12 ranks and 4 suits. It was popular, but over time, when Japan became a more closed country, fenced off from Western civilization, entertainment was banned. Gambling enthusiasts found a solution: they created their own, popular card design. When some maps became so famous that the authorities banned them, a new version of the design appeared. The final version of the card game of hanafuda was fixed to 1816.