Fusajiro Yamauchi was a Japanese artist, entrepreneur and executive, founder of the company later known as Nintendo. Yamauchi was born and lived in Kyoto, where he founded Nintendo Koppai, a small Hanafuda card shop, in 1889.
Early life
Son of Fukui Sosuke, he was adopted by the Yamauchi family at the age of seven, in 1872. Starting out by selling limestone from Onoda Cement (one of the oldest in the industry in Japan) wholesale, Yamauchi purchased a small vacant property on September 23, 1889, at the "front west entrance of Shimogyō-ku City, Kyoto".
There, he opened a trading card shop, Nintendō Koppai; the store was also known as "Fusajiro Yamauchi's Store". Since Nintendo was just a store, it also functioned as an office. Customers would come to the store to buy cards.
In parallel with the limestone business, he hand-painted Hanafuda cards and sold them at the store.
Nintendo's growth
Soon, Yamauchi was producing not only Hanafuda, but also regular playing cards. To distribute them, he negotiated with the "Tobacco King of the Meiji Era", Yoshibei Murai.
Murai was the manufacturer of Japan's first cigarette, called "Sunrise." He formed Murai Bros. Co., Ltd. with his older brother, and began selling cigarettes to Korea and China. In the 31st year of the Meiji Era (1898), Murai built Japan's first cigarette factory, "Kikai-kan," at Yamato-oji umamachi, which manufactured the "Hero" cigarette for export. He would form the first joint venture with Americans, and dominated the tobacco market until manufacturing was turned over to a state monopoly in the 37th year of the Meiji Era (1904).
In his negotiations with Murai, Yamauchi used the cigarette distribution network to sell and distribute his cards. The business grew and he needed to hire assistants to paint cards, as well as organize tournaments.
Legacy
Yamauchi was married and had a daughter, Tei Yamauchi. She would be married to Sekiryo Kaneda, Yamauchi's future successor as president of the company, from 1929.
When he retired, Yamauchi left Nintendo under the leadership of his son-in-law (referred as Sekiryo Yamauchi while president). He inherited the company as the leading card company in Japan.
Yamauchi spent the following nine years away from operations, and died in 1940, victim of a stroke.
