Vintage Nintendo Playing Cards- Full Deck - Very Rare

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Greetings to all! You are bidding on a vintage deck of Nintendo Playing Card Co, Ltd playing cards. This is a standard deck of 52 cards with 2 Jokers. These are NOT Hanafuda cards. This set was made by Nintendo for the HKK Bicycle Chain company (which started in 1916). I've tried very hard to date this set, but it's quite difficult due to the utter rarity of this item. What I do know is that in 1949 the original name, 'Yamauchi Nintendo & Company,' was changed to 'Nintendo Playing Card Co, Ltd' which is featured on the back of this deck's plastic container. We at least know these cards were manufactured between 1949 and 1963 (in '63 the name was changed to Nintedo Company, Ltd.) This was the same time period that Nintendo was manufacturing playing cards featuring Walt Disney characters in attempts to make a bigger name for themselves. We all know what happened later.... These cards are in great shape and are EXTREMELY RARE. Own a piece of Nintendo history. From Wikipedia: Nintendo started as a small Japanese business by Fusajiro Yamauchi near the end of 1887 [1 ] as Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan , the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda . In recognition of its card-playing roots, the name "Nintendo" means "leave luck to heaven". [2 ] The cards, which were all handmade, soon began to gain popularity, and Yamauchi had to hire assistants to mass produce cards to keep up with demand.Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following common Japanese tradition, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda (Sekiryo Yamauchi, after the marriage). In 1929, Yamauchi retired from the company and allowed Sekiryo Yamauchi to take over the company as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Yamauchi established a joint venture with another company and renamed the company Yamauchi Nintendo & Company.In 1947, Sekiryo established the company Marufuku Company, Ltd., to distribute the Hanafuda cards, as well as several other brands of cards that had been introduced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Yamauchi also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Shikanojo never became president because he left his family. Subsequently, his son Hiroshi was brought up by his grandparents. Hiroshi later took over the company instead of his father. [edit ]The Late Card Era Hiroshi Yamauchi attended Waseda University in Tokyo. However, after his grandfather died in 1949, he took office as the president of Nintendo. He renamed Yamauchi Nintendo & Company to Nintendo Playing Card Company, Limited , and in 1951 he renamed their distribution company, Marufuku Company, Limited, to Nintendo Karuta Company, Limited . In 1953, Nintendo became the first company in Japan to produce playing cards from plastic. This was a huge hit and allowed Nintendo to dominate the card market. [citation needed ] A Nintendo hanafuda card, showing the company's logo at the time In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi visited the U.S., to engage in talks with the United States Playing Card Company , the dominant playing card manufacturer in the United States. Yamauchi was shocked to find that the world's biggest company in his business was relegated to using a small office. This was a turning point for Yamauchi, who then realized the limitations of the playing card business. [citation needed ]In 1959, Nintendo struck a deal with Disney to have them allow Nintendo to use Disney's characters on Nintendo's playing cards. Previously, Western playing cards were regarded as something similar to hanafuda and mahjong: a device for gambling. By tying playing cards to Disney and selling books explaining the different games one could play with the cards, Nintendo could sell the product to Japanese households. The tie-in was a success and the company sold at least 600,000 card packs in a single year. Due to this success, in 1962, Yamauchi took Nintendo public, listing the company in Osaka Stock Exchange Second division. [citation need... read more

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