Rare Photo Of Nintendo’s First Headquarters Uncovered

A photo of Nintendo’s very first headquarters in Kyoto has been discovered on the official The Miracles of Kyoto: 150 Years of Meiji website.

The photo was taken around 1889, the year Nintendo was founded. According to The Miracles of Kyoto website, the founder of Nintendo, Fusajiro Yamauchi, was originally called Fusajiro Fukui. He was working at Haikyo, a company specializing in wood construction and cement.

In 1881, Fukui was adopted by his employer, Naoshichi Yamauchi. Thus he adopted the surname Yamauchi. Fusajiro Yamauchi became the director of Haikyo in the same year. Yamauchi founded Nintendo in 1889 to sell Hanafuda cards, so in short Yamauchi was running two companies for a very long time, until he sold both companies to his adoptive son-in-law.

The Haikyo society still exists up till this day in Japan and is still being led by a member of the Yamauchi family.