Nintendo is best known for its video game consoles and popular franchises like Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon, but the company has its roots in 19th century Japan. Although he would never see or know about video games, Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi is responsible for revolutionizing the global gaming industry in ways he could never have imagined.

Fusajiro Yamauchi, born on November 22, 1859, was an artist and entrepreneur who lived in Kyoto, Japan in the late 19th century. At the time, card games had been banned in Japan for over 250 years to combat illegal gambling. However, a game called Hanafuda was developed, which used illustrations instead of numbers for gameplay, to circumvent the legal prohibitions on playing cards. The Japanese government relaxed the restrictions, but Hanafuda (meaning "flower cards") did not immediately become popular.

In 1889, Yamauchi started a small company to produce a set of Hanafuda cards featuring unique handmade artwork painted on the bark of mitsu-mata trees. He opened a store called Nintendo Koppai to sell his custom game cards. The name was eventually shortened to "Nintendo," which is said to mean "leave happiness to heaven."

Nintendo's hand-painted Hanafuda cards were a hit, and Yamauchi had to hire staff to produce more. By 1907, the company's cards were so popular that they had to be mass-produced. Nintendo also began making Western-style playing cards, becoming the largest manufacturer of playing cards in Japan.