We all know that Nintendo, family-friendly videogame industry titan, started out making playing cards. Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft looks into the details and finds a company that once served gangsters and casinos, even operating its own ‘love hotel.’
Hanafuda is a traditional Japanese card game that is often played during the New Year’s holidays, at least today. In the 1880s, it was played by gangsters, and its popularity spread due in large part to gambling.The Japanese word “yakuza” originally meant “useless individuals” and is derived from a losing hand played with hanafuda. Just as Nintendo’s lore is inseparable with hanafuda, so is hanafuda impossible to disentangle from the history of Japanese organized crime.
A fantastic read.
The Nintendo they’ve tried to forget [Kotaku]