Nintendo Wouldn’t Exist Today Without the Japanese Yakuza
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![Carl Samson](https://nextshark.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CARLSAMSON_NEXTSHARK.jpg?width=128&auto_optimize=medium&quality=85)
By Carl Samson
Every company has a secret to their success, and
Most people know the Yakuza for shady business activities, whole-body tattoos, and chopped-off fingers, but as it turns out, the infamous Japanese organization had been instrumental early in the toymaker’s history.
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The fact comes to light in a new video from Polygon, which traces Nintendo’s 129-year-long life that sprung in Kyoto on September 23, 1889.
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Fusajiro Yamauchi started Nintendo as a playing card company, and its main product were Hanafuda cards or “flower cards.” The cards, originally hand-painted on mulberry tree bark, became so popular that Yamauchi had to hire assistants to satisfy the demand.
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Their biggest customer? The Yakuza!
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Apparently, the Yakuza used Hanafuda cards in their gambling parlors, with Nintendo being their biggest supplier.
In his book titled “Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World,” American author David Sheff wrote that the company made a handsome profit from its business with the Yakuza, as professional players would start a new game with a new set of cards and discard the old one.
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Thanks to the Yakuza, business went on for Nintendo, which eventually branched out from playing cards to become a taxi service, a food company, even a love hotel chain, until it settled in as a gaming firm in 1966.
The rest, of course, is history.
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As it seems, Nintendo is paying tribute to its roots with this month’s release of Labo, an extension of the Switch that makes use of cardboard cutouts for “new interactive build-and-play experiences.”
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Nintendo has certainly come a long way, and if you feel like re-living their history, Hanafuda cards are still available on their website.
Feature Image (left) via Flickr / Ari Helminen (CC BY 2.0)
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