Marufukuro, the building before the video games.

Published 3 November 2026 · WHV

Before Nintendo was a world of screens, it was a maker of playing cards. At Marufukuro in Kyoto, that earlier history is held in a building you can spend time inside. The pleasure is in the scale and details of the former headquarters, not in a collection of game-themed rooms.

Before the games console

The hotel identifies three original buildings completed in 1930: offices, a residence and a warehouse. Their early-Showa Art Deco character survives alongside a new building designed and supervised by Tadao Ando. The library is the work of Suppose Design Office. These are different contributions, and understanding who made what improves the visit.

A reused building gains depth when its earlier purpose remains legible. Doorways, proportions and the relationship between public and domestic rooms give Marufukuro a specificity that a new hotel cannot purchase as an accessory. The new work adds another chapter rather than asking the old structures to carry every contemporary requirement.

Choose which part of the story to inhabit

Room choice matters here. Decide whether you want the original building or the newer wing, then look at the actual room photographs and plan. A stay is an opportunity to notice transitions between the two. Confirm access to the library and shared spaces with the hotel. This is an operating property on a historic site, not a substitute for Nintendo’s separate museum.