Playing Card Company
1889
Marufuku Company, Ltd. was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto. They manufactured Hanafuda, Japanese-style playing cards in response to the 1633 ban on foreign playing cards (Pederson). Decks consisted of 48 cards, originally hand-crafted using the bark of mulberry and mitsu-mata trees, divided into 12 suits, each representing a month. Today, Nintendo has incorporated notable game characters onto them, such as Mario (Original Japanese Style Hanafuda Cards). |
1907
Marufuku Company Ltd. began manufacturing Western-style playing cards. These were originally meant to replace the worn-out decks brought back by released Russian prisoners during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (Pederson). Although WWII damaged the Japanese economy, playing cards remained popular and Marufuku's cards succeeded. |
1925-1928
Marufuku Company began exporting Hanafuda cards overseas. They experimented with Western marketing and advertising strategies. 1950-1953 Hiroshi Yamauchi became President of the company. Marufuku was renamed Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd. Nintendo is loosely translated as, "You work hard but, in the end, it's in heaven's hands" (Peterson). Hiroshi solved the shortage of playing-card paper by developing mass produced plastic-coated playing cards. |