Fusajiro Yamauchi

Fusajirō Yamauchi (山内 房治郎, Yamauchi Fusajirō^?) (Kyoto, November 22, 1859-ibidem, January 2, 1940), born Fusajirō Fukui (福井 房治郎, Fusajirō Fukui^?) was a Japanese entrepreneur, best known for being the founder and first president of Nintendo, originally a hanafuda card company and later a major global video game company. Yamauchi lived in Kyoto, Japan, where he also set up his company headquarters.

Fusajirō has family relationships with every president Nintendo has ever had except the last three, Satoru Iwata, Tatsumi Kimishima, and Shuntaro Furukawa.

Early Years

Fusajiro Fukui was born in 1859, as the eldest son of Sosuke Fukui. Working at the Haiko Cement Company, Fukui would receive the surname Yamauchi upon being adopted by Naoshichi Yamauchi in 1872.

Professional career

Fusajirō Yamauchi founded his company on September 23, 1889 as Nintendo Koppai (任天堂骨牌). a playing card shop, at a time when the Japanese government prohibited playing cards in the hands of the public, due to their being tied to gambling, with the exception of the Yamauchi playing cards. Increasing demand was that these hanafuda decks, thanks to their quality, were adopted by the yakuza for their card games.

Therefore, Yamauchi was forced to expand the business to meet the demand, which continued to increase over time, making Nintendo a very prosperous company known throughout the country for years to come.

Another important event during his tenure was that in 1902 he became the first Japanese company to successfully manufacture and sell Western playing cards (mainly English playing cards).

Retirement and death

Fusajirō Yamauchi retired in 1929. His son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda, inherited the company's presidency, but remained associated with it for the rest of his life. In 1940, just before Japan entered World War II, Yamauchi suffered a fatal stroke, his remains being entombed in the basement of the original Nintendo offices in Kyoto.

Personal life

He had a daughter named Tei Yamauchi, wife of Yamauchi's successor as Nintendo president, Sekiryo Kaneda. In addition, Fusajiro is the grandfather of Hiroshi Yamauchi, third president of the company from 1949 to 2002 and who would transform the company from the business of playing cards to an important company in the area of video games and electronics.