Who founded Nintendo in 1889 as a playing-card company?

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo in 1889 as a playing-card company.

Yamauchi established the business in Kyoto, Japan, under the name Nintendo Koppai. The company initially produced hanafuda, traditional Japanese playing cards made by hand. Nintendo’s later global identity as a video-game publisher and hardware manufacturer therefore grew from a much older entertainment business.

A frequent mistake is answering Hiroshi Yamauchi. Hiroshi was Fusajiro’s grandson and became Nintendo’s third president in 1949. During his long leadership, Nintendo moved into new businesses and eventually entered the electronic-game market. He was enormously important to Nintendo’s transformation, but he was not the founder.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi were influential Nintendo designers and developers, not founders. Miyamoto created or shaped major series including Mario and The Legend of Zelda, while Yokoi designed products such as the Game Boy. Their roles belong to Nintendo’s later history.