Florent Gorges, the Founder, and Manager of Omake Books also tweeted the image.
We just found an incredible picture of the real first Nintendo H.Q in Kyoto, around 1889. All the information here (in French): https://t.co/5gvOQakj63 pic.twitter.com/5ZtjBiLGxj
— Florent Gorges (@FlorentGorgesFR) January 23, 2018
The website explains the building was reportedly originally used by Naoshichi Yamauchi, who specialised in crafting items made of wood and cement for his company, Haikyo. Yamauchi adopted his employee, Fusajiro Fukui, who went on to become Fusajiro Yamauchi, the founder of Nintendo.
IGN has reached out to Nintendo for confirmation and further comment, and will update this story should they respond.
Yamauchi founded Nintendo in 1889 to sell Hanafuda cards, which are playing cards used for a number of Japanese games. He did this while also running the Haikyo company and held both positions for many years, according to Omake, before his son-in-law who was also adopted took over both companies.
While we know Nintendo continues to flourish today with the Nintendo Switch having an incredible first year and even selling 1.5 million units in the U.S. last month alone, it's worth noting Haikyo still exists and is still headed by a member of the Yamauchi family.Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Facebook,Twitter, and Twitch.