nintendo hanafuda cards

Everyone knows Nintendo is the creator of Mario, one of the most beloved video game characters of all time, but not as many know that Nintendo started out as a Hanafuda card manufacturer. While not popular and rarely played in the US outside of Hawaii, Hanafuda (literally translated as flower cards) was insanely popular at a certain time in Japan and used by many gambling establishments, including the Yakuza. In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded a company, which he called Nintendo Koppai, to produce the cards which at that point in time were handcrafted and painted on mulberry tree bark.