What does the newly-opened Nintendo Museum in Kyoto look like?

Nintendo Museum, Kyoto, Japan, September 24, 2024. RICHARD A. BROOKS / AFP

After the theme park opened in Osaka in 2021, Nintendo is getting a museum of its own. The two-story building, with its white walls pixilated in grey, officially launched on Wednesday, October 2, providing a playful, nostalgic immersion into the world of the Japanese gaming giant through a rich collection of admirably preserved toys and a wide range of activities based on the consoles that conquered the world.

It is an opportunity to learn “more about our desire to invent experiences that give pride of place to play and creativity, two values inherent to Nintendo,” said Shigeru Miyamoto. The man dubbed the “Walt Disney of video games,” who joined Nintendo in 1977 after graduating from the Kanazawa University of Fine Arts (south of Tokyo), is the father of the Zelda and Mario characters, among others.

He played a major role in the design of the site near Ogura station in Uji, south of Kyoto. The venue, set up in the former Hanafuda and Karuta playing card factory – the first activity of the group born in 1889 – is decorated in the colors of the famous plumber, with green piping, yellow “question mark” blocks and even a little Toad at the entrance.

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