Nintendo

---"leave luck to heaven."

1889–1956: As a card company

Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889, later (1951) named Nintendo Koppai .

The business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda.

Nintendo now continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the "Nintendo Cup".

1956–1974: New ventures

The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital. During this period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a love hotel chain, a TV network, a food company and several other ventures.

In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U.S. He then gained access to Disney's characters and put them on the playing cards to drive sales.