[In Case You Didn't Know] Nintendo's Main Product Was Hwatu, Not 'Super Mario' (Part 1)

Animation Film 'Super Mario Brothers'
From Arcade Cards to Video Game and Toy Company
The Story Behind Donkey Kong's Carpenter Transforming into a Plumber
The Unique Hiring Story of Miyamoto Who Created Mario

The animated film 'Super Mario Bros.' was created based on the world of the game of the same name. Key characters such as Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, and Pinocchio appear as they are. The creators behind these characters were Nintendo's former chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi (1927?2013) and former executive director Shigeru Miyamoto. They captivated children by skillfully blending humor into a world that became more exciting as the levels progressed. It also gave adults a nostalgic feeling of returning to their childhood, dominating the global gaming market.

Miyamoto described Mario as "a trigger that allows me to return to my innocent self." "Whenever I create a game, I always go back to my childhood. Back then, I wasn't making games, but I was the master of the game world. Games are not only for children but also for me. In other words, games are for adults who have not yet lost their childlike hearts."

'Super Mario Bros.' conquered theaters worldwide with the same charm. According to Forbes, it recorded ticket sales exceeding $1 billion (approximately 1.341 trillion KRW) as of last month. This was just 26 days after its release in North America on the 5th of last month. It also premiered in Korea on the 26th of last month, topping the weekend box office. Only nine animated films have ever surpassed $1 billion in revenue, including 'Frozen 2' (2013, $1.43768 billion) and 'Frozen' (2019, $1.25688 billion).

'Did you know?' Here are some interesting facts to enhance your movie experience.

*Nintendo started in 1889 as a playing card company. The founder, Fusajiro Yamauchi (1859?1940), was skilled at drawing and handiwork. The first product was Hanafuda cards. The cards were organized into 12 units representing the months of the year, each consisting of four cards with different units. Pictures symbolizing each unit were drawn. Specifically, January featured pine trees and cranes symbolizing longevity and happiness; February had bush warblers and plum blossoms; March had cherry blossoms; April had broom grass; May had delicate orchid flowers; June had splendid peonies; July had red broom grass; August had a round moon symbolizing harvest; September had autumn chrysanthemums; October had red maple leaves; November had paulownia trees standing at the threshold of winter; and December told the story of the calligrapher Ono no Tofu.

*Yamauchi named the company Nintendo, meaning "leave luck to heaven." It reflected the mindset of doing their best but leaving the outcome to fate. They started selling the cards under the name "President" at directly managed stores in Kyoto and Osaka. Hanafuda cards spread throughout Japan as the Yakuza, a violent organization, created nationwide gambling dens. Nintendo also produced trump cards, dominating the Japanese card market.

*In the 1940s, Japan exported Hanafuda cards to Korea and China as part of its continental policy. In Korea's case, people who had been forcibly conscripted or worked as military laborers in Japan brought the cards back after liberation, deeply embedding them into Korean life.

*Playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese and Dutch. The cards created by Yamauchi resembled ancient Japanese shell cards used for games, featuring intricate pictures. The smaller and thicker 'Hanafuda' cards replaced the shell cards but retained the detailed and colorful designs of the ancient pictures.

*Yamauchi used traditional methods to make the paper for Hanafuda cards from the bark of mulberry and mitsumata trees. The bark was ground into powder, mixed with clay, and kneaded to make it sticky and heavy. It was then spread thin, dried, rubbed, and shaped. Yamauchi layered several thin sheets of paper, compressed them to make them as thick and sturdy as hardcover book covers, and cut them to full sheet size. To emphasize the outlines of the pictures on the cards, he devised a woodblock printing technique where only the outlines were carved in relief. The woodblocks were printed in a row on full sheets, and the inside of the outlines was colored with photosensitive paints extracted from flower petals and various seeds. The colored pictures had red backgrounds and black grass leaves. The full moon was left uncolored, showing the paper's natural color. The paints slightly bled into each other at the edges, clearly showing they were hand-dyed.

*Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's third-generation chairman, took office at age 22 in 1949. After World War II, the U.S. government, which exercised occupation rights over Japan, provided much support to revive Japan's economy, including inviting Japanese companies to the U.S. to learn various technologies. Yamauchi visited the U.S. at this time and toured US Playing Card Company, the world's top card manufacturer. He was shocked to find that the world's leading company operated out of a shabby two-story warehouse. He thought that even if he succeeded as a world-class card manufacturer, he would never escape such a humble warehouse and began seeking new growth engines. He introduced instant rice meals and love hotels as new businesses but failed. The former overlooked the essential taste of rice in favor of convenience, and the latter failed due to ignoring local culture and sentiment. Kyoto, though a large city like Tokyo, valued tradition. Yamauchi tried to rebound with a taxi business but closed it after tiring struggles with labor unions. Due to repeated failures, Nintendo's stock price fell from 980 yen to 60 yen.

*Yamauchi hated being called "the family that produces Hanafuda" when he was young. He vaguely thought he should continue the family business but felt resistance due to the negative image associated with gambling. However, before he could voice these thoughts, his maternal grandfather (Sekiryo Yamauchi) suddenly collapsed, forcing him to quit school and take over the family business. Yamauchi recalled his feelings at the time: "There was no one else. If I didn't do it, many employees would be left wandering the streets. I had little will to run the company, but it was a situation where I had no choice. I thought of it as fate."

*Nintendo transformed into an entertainment and toy company as Ultra Hand (a toy with two handles that open and close opposite claws, useful for grabbing distant objects) and laser guns sold like hotcakes. However, the oil shock caused a domestic recession and canceled overseas orders, prompting new product development. Yamauchi paid close attention to semiconductor and microprocessor technologies used in computers and office equipment. He foresaw revolutionary changes coming to household products and sought ways to apply these to entertainment products. He secured the rights to manufacture and sell Magnavox video game consoles in Japan and directed the development of a new video game console. Problems such as circuit board manufacturing using microprocessors were solved through cooperation with Mitsubishi, and production of video game consoles began. The result was the 1977 'Color TV Game 6,' which sold over one million units with games like 'Racing Game' and 'Block Breaker.'

*Yamauchi did not like games and never played video games in his life. A graduate of Waseda University’s law department, he had no engineering background. Yet Nintendo's glory began with his intuition. He judged the market and decided product directions based solely on his instincts, understanding the essence of the market rather than the product mechanisms. A representative result was 'Game & Watch,' developed with Sharp, a portable electronic calculator company. It was the world's first handheld game console, marketed as the smallest computer game device. Yamauchi also introduced the home console Famicom, laying the foundation for monumental game titles like 'Super Mario' and 'The Legend of Zelda.'

*Shigeru Miyamoto, even called the "God of Games," entered Kanazawa Municipal College's Department of Industrial Arts and Crafts in 1970. It took him five years to graduate. He was more interested in sketching, listening to music, and playing guitar than his major studies. He asked his father, who was acquainted with Yamauchi, to arrange an interview at Nintendo. He was told to come back with an interesting toy idea and returned with a clothes hanger, earning approval. It was an invention designed for children. He was confident that it could be hung in a nursery wall or in children's rooms at home. Ordinary metal hangers were dangerous for children, with sharp hooks that could cause injuries or eye pokes. Miyamoto carved soft wood into an elephant head shape and painted it with bright acrylic paint. Clothes could be hung on the elephant's ears and curled trunk. The elephant's neck was designed like a puzzle piece to easily hang on wall hooks. He also made bird and chicken-shaped hangers and presented several more elaborately designed toy sketches to Yamauchi. Among the sketches were ingenious clocks suitable for amusement parks and seesaws for three children to play on simultaneously.

*Miyamoto's home had no TV or car. He took trains to Kyoto every month or two to shop and watch movies like 'Peter Pan' or 'Snow White.' At home, he mostly read books and created detailed dolls, painting them to stage puppet shows.

*Miyamoto believed that existing shooting or sports games could not sustain interest for long. He thought games needed stories and decided to create different stories and characters. The first idea was based on the 'Beauty and the Beast' storyline. Simplified, it became a basic plot of 'a hero, a villain, and a kidnapped girl to rescue.' The character created was a gorilla resembling King Kong. The gorilla was neither very scary nor violent, and the hero opposing it was an ordinary carpenter, not a superhero. The hero, sometimes clumsy and prone to mistakes, was relatable to ordinary gamers. Miyamoto created music and inserted it into the fight between the protagonist with a sixteen-dot punch nose and mustache and the gorilla, resulting in the 1981 release of 'Donkey Kong.' Nintendo's existing developers were skeptical of this game because its development approach differed greatly from Nintendo's traditional methods. However, 'Donkey Kong' became a phenomenal hit and earned Miyamoto the title 'God of Games.'

*In 1984, Yamauchi instructed Miyamoto to develop a game for the Famicom. Miyamoto recalled the carpenter 'Jumpman' from 'Donkey Kong,' which he had already given new life. He changed the profession from carpenter to plumber and named him 'Mario.' The short, stocky Mario, along with his brother Luigi, became 'Super Mario Bros.,' running around on small video game screens and becoming known worldwide.

*Miyamoto explained the reason for setting the Mario brothers as plumbers: "When I was a child living in an apartment in Kyoto, there was a peculiar small manhole cover on a nearby building's fence. I passed by it every day and often saw that manhole cover. One day, looking at it, I wondered where it would lead if I opened it and went inside."

*The game, where the plumber brothers jump over obstacles and pass through large green pipes leading to secret worlds, immediately captivated Yamauchi. Ten minutes after Miyamoto explained the game to the executives, Yamauchi stood up abruptly, saying, "This game must be made!" and left the meeting room as if there was nothing more to hear. Super Mario became the best-selling game worldwide, even entering the Guinness World Records. People bought the game console not to play games but to play Super Mario.

*Miyamoto believed video games should be enjoyable visually and audibly, so he entrusted background music to professional composer Koji Kondo. The sounds when the Mario brothers jump and the lively background music captivated gamers' ears. Nintendo even sold Super Mario background music as records. The songs were performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and became so popular that Jamaican reggae singer Shinehead rapped them.

*Gamers worldwide who experienced 'Super Mario Bros.' visited Nintendo's Kyoto building as if on a pilgrimage to meet Miyamoto, the game's creator. Among those who wanted to join this group was Paul McCartney of The Beatles. He publicly said, "If I visit Japan, I want to meet Miyamoto more than the famous Mount Fuji."

*Super Mario was released for the Famicom in 1985 and evolved to become Nintendo's killer content. Amid themes filled with shootings and mass killings, it revolutionized the video game market with wit and humor?elements that seemed incompatible with computer terminals or controllers. Even when Nintendo was struggling in a slump, Super Mario played a crucial role in rebuilding the prestigious company.

*Children immersed themselves in Nintendo culture even when not playing video games. TV cartoons based on Nintendo games and characters had higher ratings than any other programs. Consequently, shows like 'The Simpsons,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' 'Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers,' and 'DuckTales' began to resemble Nintendo games.

*Scott Rosenberg, a writer and producer who wrote screenplays for movies like 'Con Air' (1997), 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' (2018), and 'Venom' (2018), published a paper in September 1991 titled 'Cursed Mario: The Real-Life Hero, the Video Game Plumber.' It stated: "Mario is a short, stocky guy with a thick mustache who acts on your behalf in the game world. (...) The fact that millions of children and adults identified with Mario is not due to shortened attention spans, diminished interest in wonders, or being swayed by expensive advertising campaigns. People were captivated by Mario's fate?being thrown into a rigid world they did not choose, carrying an almost impossible mission, destined to die someday but living actively, growing, learning, defeating monsters, and smelling the Fire Flower (an item in the Super Mario series). They mentally projected their own lives onto Mario's and watched with fascination."

*Yamauchi believed Nintendo should be a paradise for video game artists. He saw great video game creators not as technicians but as artists. "Ordinary people cannot develop excellent games no matter how hard they try. Only a very few in this world can develop games that everyone wants. Those few are the talents Nintendo seeks." He showed interest only in a small number of geniuses who would lead Nintendo, as he claimed.

References: 'The Secret of Nintendo' (2009) by David Sheff, translated by Kim Sung-gyun and Kwon Hee-jung, published by Ire Media; 'The Story of Nintendo' (2009) by Kim Young-han, published by Korea Economic Daily; 'Mario Born in 1981' (2017) edited by the Humanities Cooperative, published by Yoda; 'Console Wars' (2017) by Blake J. Harris, translated by Lee Mi-ryeong, published by Gilbut; 'How Nintendo Conquered the World' (2015) by Jeff Ryan, translated by Park Ki-sung, published by Acorn; 'Planning and Scenario Determining the Fate of Games' (2018) by Kim Jeong-nam and Kim Jeong-hyun, published by eBiz Books; 'Nintendo Complete Guide: Computer Games Edition' (2021) by Isao Yamazaki, translated by Jung Woo-yeol, published by La's Eye, etc.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.