MARUFUKURO- When architecture meets Mario

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Of all the Japanese companies known throughout the world, video gaming pioneer Nintendo is one of the most beloved. Despite its technology-driven reputation, Nintendo was actually founded back in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce hanafuda, a type of card used for traditional Japanese games. From 1933 to 1959, these cards were produced in a quiet neighborhood near Kyoto Station at a building that served as the company headquarters, factory, and Yamauchi family home. Though the company expanded to larger offices, this former headquarters remained as a private Yamauchi family property. After finding international acclaim in the 1980’s with the NES system and classic video games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros., the company continued to innovate… and Nintendo enthusiasts came from all over the globe to marvel at the former headquarters building, imagining how a bunch of craftsmen painting Japanese playing cards eventually became a video gaming empire.   Over sixty years since the headquarters was shuttered, Nintendo fans who wanted to explore the inside of the building can now rejoice! In the spring of 2022, the former headquarters was transformed and given new life as a beautiful boutique hotel named Marufukuro, after the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand used to sell the company’s playing cards in the early 1900’s. The hotel is run by Tokyo-based renovation company Plan Do See and boasts eighteen guest rooms (seven of which are suites) ranging in size from 33sqm to 79sqm. While keeping the vintage architecture that preserves an early period in Nintendo history, the hotel has also received a 21st century makeover by world-renowned designer Tadao Ando, “the king of concrete”.