Question for the Japanese speakers.

It's common knowledge in the gaming community that Nintendo, translated from Japanese to English is "Leave Luck To Heaven". But I've just recently found out Kotaku (a popular, but controversial videogame news site) says it means "The company is allowed to make Hanafuda".

Are millions of gamers wrong about it meaning Leave Luck to Heaven or is Kotaku just being Kotaku and screwing up?

I'm not a Japanese speaker, but from what I can tell, the ban on Hanafuda was lifted before Nintendo was founded - in fact some link the lifting of the ban to founding of Nintendo as the founder enjoyed the cards and wanted to produce good quality cards.

This might come from not being a Japanese speaker, but I'd also wonder how "Nintendo" translates to a sentence including "hanafuda" without any of the syllables referring to hanafuda (except perhaps the "do")

i looked up, and kotaku's theory seems to come from Nintendo's original company name, ?????. ??(koppai) means playing cards like hanafuda.

ninten inplies leave luck to heaven AFTER we did everything humanly possible. we do our best then leave the final result to divide will.

sorry my english is not very good.

edit: this board doesn't support japanese? what i typed isn't showing.:confused:

Wasn't Nintendo's first gig as a card company back in history?

As for Kotaku, they've been trashy for a long time now, and I immediately doubt anything reported from them.
I don't think I've ever seen the JP characters for Nintendo.

If I nab Mach Alert's thinking:

Quote:

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ninten inplies leave luck to heaven AFTER we did everything humanly possible. we do our best then leave the final result to divide[divine] will.

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Humanly efforts weren't enough, so we wish for a miracle... Sounds a bit defeatist. hahaha
I assume the DO would be "way" like from Kendo, Judo, sado etc?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

Wasn't Nintendo's first gig as a card company back in history?

As for Kotaku, they've been trashy for a long time now, and I immediately doubt anything reported from them.
I don't think I've ever seen the JP characters for Nintendo.

If I nab Mach Alert's thinking:


Humanly efforts weren't enough, so we wish for a miracle... Sounds a bit defeatist. hahaha
I assume the DO would be "way" like from Kendo, Judo, sado etc?

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i would like to think we are humble!;)

'Do" in kendo, sado etc is "the way", "Do" in nintendo is "hall" "house". different kanji:)
i read nintendo started as card (hanafuda) manufacturer also.