Editing Nintendo (section)

=== Early history ===

==== 1889–1932: Origin as a playing card business ====
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| caption1          = Original Nintendo headquarters (1889–1930) and workshop in [[Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto]], {{Circa|1889}}. The right section was eventually rebuilt (pictured below), and the left section was reportedly demolished in 2004.
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| caption2          = Nintendo [[karuta]] poster from the [[Meiji era]]}}Nintendo was founded as {{Nihongo foot|Nintendo Koppai|任天堂骨牌|Nintendō Koppai|group=lower-alpha}} on 23 September 1889<ref name="Nintendo is founded, September 23, 1889" /> by craftsman [[Fusajiro Yamauchi]] in [[Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto]], Japan, as an unincorporated establishment, to produce and distribute [[Culture of Japan|Japanese]] [[playing card]]s, or {{Nihongo|[[karuta]]|かるた||from [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|carta}}, 'card'}}, most notably {{Nihongo3|'flower cards'|[[wikt:花札|花札]]|[[hanafuda]]}}.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company Profile" /><ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /><ref name="Nintendo Probably Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does" /><ref name="The Traditional Beauty Of Nintendo's Playing Cards" />{{sfn|Sheff|1999|p=14}} The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven",{{sfn|Sheff|1999|p=14}}<ref name="Nintendo's 1955 Cameo In The New York Times" /> but the assumption lacks historical validation; it has also been suggested to mean "the temple of free {{transliteration|ja|hanafuda}}", but even descendants of Yamauchi do not know the true intended meaning of the name.<ref name="Nintendo Probably Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does" /> Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with the [[yakuza]]-run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market, not wanting to be associated with its criminality, but Yamauchi persisted despite such fears to become the primary producer of hanafuda within a few years.<ref name="The birthplace of Nintendo" /> With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to [[Mass production|mass-produce]] them to satisfy the demand.<ref name="Before Mario: Nintendo's Playing Cards, Toys And Love Hotels" /> Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggles due to operating in a [[niche market]], the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=16}} As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, {{transliteration|ja|Tengu}}, while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as [[Osaka]], where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in the prospect of continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=17}}

According to Nintendo, the business' first western-style card deck was put on the market in 1902,<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> although other documents indicate the date was 1907, shortly after the [[Russo-Japanese War]].{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=19}} Although the cards were initially intended to be exported, they quickly gained popularity within and without Japan.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> During this time, the business styled itself as Marufuku Nintendo Card Co.<ref name="Nintendo's oldest playing cards? Marufuku No. 1" /> The [[Russo-Japanese War|war]] created considerable difficulties for companies in the leisure sector, which were subject to new levies such as the {{transliteration|ja|[[Karuta]] Zei}} ("playing cards tax").{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=20}} Nintendo subsisted and, in 1907, entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later known as the [[Japan Tobacco]]—to market its cards to various cigarette stores throughout the country.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=21}} A Nintendo promotional calendar from the [[Taishō era]] dated to 1915 indicates that the business was named {{Nihongo foot|Yamauchi Nintendo |山内任天堂|Yamauchi Nintendō |group=lower-alpha}} but still used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards.<ref name="100 year old Nintendo promotional calendar" />

[[Culture of Japan|Japanese culture]] stipulated that for Nintendo to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law so that he could take over the business. As a result, [[Sekiryo Kaneda]] adopted the Yamauchi surname in 1907 and headed the business in 1929. By that time, Nintendo was the largest playing card business in Japan.{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|page=15}}

==== 1933–1968: Incorporation and expansion ====
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| image1            = Nintendo Former Headquarters Building.jpg
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| caption1          = Former Nintendo headquarters (1933–1959), rebuilt from the right section of the original building
| image2            = Nintendo former headquarter plate Kyoto.jpg
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| caption2          = English company information plate in the former Nintendo headquarters
}}

In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a [[general partnership]] named {{Nihongo foot|Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd.|山内任天堂株式会社|Yamauchi Nintendō kabushiki gaisha|group=lower-alpha}}<ref name="Nintendo History" /> investing in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building,{{Sfn|Sheff|2011}} near the [[Toba-kaidō Station|Toba-kaidō train station]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/4129171/nintendo-tatsumi-kimishima/ |title=President Tatsumi Kimishima on the Future of Nintendo |last=Peckham |first=Matt |date=3 December 2015 |magazine=Time |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=28 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828160742/https://time.com/4129171/nintendo-tatsumi-kimishima/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Because Sekiryo's marriage to Yamauchi's daughter produced no male heirs, he planned to adopt his son-in-law Shikanojo Inaba, an artist in the company's employ and the father of his grandson [[Hiroshi Yamauchi|Hiroshi]], born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was made Sekiryo's eventual successor.{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|page=16}}

[[World War II]] negatively impacted the company as Japanese authorities prohibited the diffusion of foreign card games, and as the priorities of Japanese society shifted, its interest in recreational activities waned. During this time, Nintendo was partly supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=23}} In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company {{Nihongo foot|Marufuku Co., Ltd. |丸福株式会社|Marufuku kabushiki gaisha|group=lower-alpha}} responsible for Nintendo's sales and marketing operations, which would eventually go on to become the present-day Nintendo Co., Ltd., in Higashikawara-cho, Imagumano, [[Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto]].<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /><ref name="Nintendo Probably Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does" />

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| caption1          = [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]], former Nintendo president (1949–2002)
| image2            = Nintendo 1949 New Year staff commemoration.webp
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| caption2          = 1949 New Year Nintendo staff commemoration
}}

In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health,{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=24}} Hiroshi Yamauchi assumed the presidency and headed manufacturing operations.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> His first actions involved several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951, he changed the company name to {{Nihongo foot|Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. |任天堂骨牌株式会社|Nintendō Karuta kabushiki gaisha|group=lower-alpha}}<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /><ref name="Vooks">{{cite web |url=https://www.vooks.net/meet-the-6-presidents-of-nintendos-130-year-history/ |title=Meet the 6 Presidents of Nintendo's 130 year history |website=Vooks |last=Henderson |first=Luke |date=30 April 2018 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=5 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805040428/https://www.vooks.net/meet-the-6-presidents-of-nintendos-130-year-history/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and in the following year, he centralized the manufacturing facilities dispersed in Kyoto, which led to the expansion of the offices in Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" />{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=25}} In 1953, Nintendo became the first company to succeed in mass-producing plastic playing cards in Japan.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History"/> Some of the company's employees, accustomed to more cautious and conservative leadership, viewed the new measures with concern, and the rising tension led to a call for a [[Strike action|strike]]. However, the measure had no major impact, as Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=26}}

In 1959, Nintendo moved its headquarters to Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku in [[Kyoto]]. The company entered into a partnership with [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] to incorporate its characters into playing cards, which opened it up to the children's market and resulted in a boost to Nintendo's playing card business.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /><ref name="Vooks"/> Nintendo automated the production of Japanese playing cards using backing paper, and also developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" />{{Sfn|Sheff|2011}} By 1961, the company had established a Tokyo branch in [[Chiyoda, Tokyo]],<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /> and sold more than 1.5&nbsp;million card packs, holding a high [[market share]], for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=28}} In 1962, Nintendo became a public company by listing stock on the second section of the [[Osaka Exchange|Osaka Securities Exchange]] and the Kyoto Stock Exchange.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> In the following year, the company adopted its current name, {{Nihongo foot|Nintendo & Co., Ltd.|任天堂株式会社|Nintendō kabushiki gaisha|group=lower-alpha}} and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards.<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History"/>

In 1964, Nintendo earned {{JPY|150 million}}.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=29}} Although the company experienced a period of economic prosperity, the Disney cards and derived products made it dependent on the children's market. The situation was exacerbated by the falling sales of its adult-oriented playing cards caused by Japanese society gravitating toward other hobbies such as [[pachinko]], [[bowling]], and nightly outings.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=28}} When Disney card sales began to decline, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate the situation.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=29}} After the 1964 [[1964 Summer Olympics|Tokyo Olympics]], Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level of {{JPY|60}}.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4S7dvvs_0nIC&pg=PT44 |title=Freelancers!: A Revolution in the Way We Work |isbn=9781625166166 |last1=Gregory |first1=Tony |date=12 March 2013 |publisher=Strategic Book |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101083131/https://books.google.com/books?id=4S7dvvs_0nIC&pg=PT44 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-pGHGDm5a4C&pg=PA12 |title=The Story of Nintendo |isbn=9781448870431 |last1=Sutherland |first1=Adam |date=15 January 2012 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101083131/https://books.google.com/books?id=M-pGHGDm5a4C&pg=PA12 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1965, Nintendo hired [[Gunpei Yokoi]] to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its playing cards.<ref name="gi116">{{cite magazine |date=January 2002 |title=Forgotten Giant: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Gunpei Yokoi |magazine=[[Game Informer]] |volume=12 |issue=105 |page=116}}</ref>

==== 1969–1972: Classic and electronic toys ====
Yamauchi increased Nintendo's investment in a research and development department in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi, a long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various projects.<ref name="Nintendo History" />{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|pp=20-21}} Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced.<ref name="BusinessInsider2019">{{cite web |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-game-boy-super-mario-history-evolution-2019-3#among-the-companys-many-new-ventures-nintendo-began-manufacturing-games-in-the-70s-it-started-selling-electronic-toys-like-its-popular-beam-guns-4 |title=From playing cards to 'Super Mario Bros.', here's Nintendo's history. |last=Malinsky |first=Gili |website=Business Insider |date=18 March 2019 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804140151/https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-game-boy-super-mario-history-evolution-2019-3#among-the-companys-many-new-ventures-nintendo-began-manufacturing-games-in-the-70s-it-started-selling-electronic-toys-like-its-popular-beam-guns-4 |url-status=live }}</ref> During that period, Nintendo built a new production plant in [[Uji]], just outside of Kyoto,<ref name="Nintendo History"/> and distributed classic [[tabletop game]]s like [[chess]], [[shogi]], [[Go (game)|go]], and [[mahjong]], and other foreign games under the Nippon Game brand.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=32}} The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=33}}

In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange,<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate headquarters was completed.<ref name="Nintendo History" /> The year represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the ''Beam Gun'', an [[Optoelectronics|optoelectronic]] pistol designed by [[Masayuki Uemura]].<ref name="Nintendo History"/> In total, more than a million units were sold.{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|page=24}} Nintendo partnered with [[Magnavox]] to provide a [[light gun]] controller based on the ''Beam Gun'' design for the company's new home video game console, the [[Magnavox Odyssey]], in 1971.<ref name="gamestudies geemu">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.gamestudies.org/1302/articles/picard |title=The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Early Japanese video games |first=Martin |last=Picard |volume=13 |issue=2 |issn=1604-7982 |magazine=Game Studies |date=December 2013 |access-date=14 April 2021 |archive-date=9 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209202810/http://gamestudies.org/1302/articles/picard |url-status=live}}</ref> Other popular toys released at the time included the [[Ultra Hand]], the [[Ultra Machine]], the Ultra Scope, and the [[Love Tester]], all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2&nbsp;million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan.<ref name="Before Mario: Nintendo's Playing Cards, Toys And Love Hotels" />