Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto; 宮本茂
	; Shigeru Miyamoto in 2026
Born	November 16, 1952 (age 73)
Super Mario–related roles	Representative director, game developer, artist, game designer
Years active	1977–present
Employer	Nintendo

“What if, on a crowded street, you look up and see something appear that should not, given what we know, be there. You either shake your head and dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than we think. Perhaps it really is a doorway to another place. If you choose to go inside you may find many unexpected things...”

—Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto (in Japanese: 宮本茂) is a Japanese video game designer, producer, artist, and game director at Nintendo,^[2] best known for being the creator of the Super Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin franchises, among others. He joined the company as a character artist and product designer in 1977.^[3] In Japan in 2019, Miyamoto was recognized as a Person of Cultural Merit,^[4] and in 2026, he received the Order of Culture award,^[5] being the first video game developer to receive both awards. Miyamoto currently holds the position of Executive Fellow and Representative Director at Nintendo.^[6]

Biography[edit]

In his early childhood, Miyamoto was raised in the small, rural town of Sonobe, Japan, near his current home of Kyoto, about ten blocks from Nintendo's headquarters. His home lacked a television, so he would spend a large amount of his leisure time exploring the surrounding countryside. He would also make his own toys and cartoon flip-books.^[7] Miyamoto often attributes his experiences exploring the countryside as having inspired the creation of the series The Legend of Zelda.^[8]

Miyamoto wanted to make things that would astonish the world. In elementary school, he considered becoming a puppeteer or a painter, and he later found interest in making toys. He also learned how to play the guitar and banjo. Miyamoto decided to study industrial design at Kanazawa College of Art in 1970. Miyamoto attended his classes only half of the time, and it took him five years to graduate.

Miyamoto was 24 years of age when his father contacted an old friend, named Hiroshi Yamauchi, at the toy company Nintendo. Yamauchi requested to see some toy designs, to which Miyamoto responded by returning with a bag of products and a portfolio. Miyamoto became Nintendo's first staff artist in 1977, working on designing characters and artwork for arcade games.^[9]^[3] His first work involved making the casings for the Color TV-Game line of plug-and-play consoles. Some of Miyamoto's first times working on games themselves were Nintendo's Sheriff and Space Firebird, from 1979 and 1980, respectively.^[9]

In 1980, Nintendo of America was looking for a successful video game to establish itself in the arcade market. Nintendo ordered a large number of units of the arcade game Radar Scope, but by the time the machines arrived, interest in the game began to decline. Following this failure, Nintendo sought a game that the unused machines could be converted into easily. Yamauchi called Miyamoto into his office, as he was the only staff member available at the time, and questioned him about his knowledge on the video game concept, to which Miyamoto claimed to have loved video games in college. Gunpei Yokoi, then lead of Nintendo's engineering team, was assigned to oversee the project. The two went on to create the highly successful game Donkey Kong.^[10]

With Donkey Kong's success, Miyamoto was given his own team: the Creative Department, later known as Nintendo EAD and then Nintendo EPD. Miyamoto became Yokoi's protégé and the two developed a close relationship, with Yokoi often giving Miyamoto advice on game design. Together they came up with the idea for Miyamoto's next game, Mario Bros.,^[11]^[12] a competitive experience inspired by the 1982 game Joust.^[9] In 1985, Miyamoto, along with Takashi Tezuka, developed Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda simultaneously. The respective series that started from these games would go on to become two of Nintendo's main flagship series.

While Miyamoto has mentioned that he finds it difficult to say who his favorite Nintendo character is, he has stated that some of his more beloved favorites include Mario, Princess Peach, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Zelda, Toad, Link, and Donkey Kong.^[13] On separate occasions, he has cited Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World as being his favorite game.^[14]^[15] His favorite games for the NES are Baseball, Golf, and Mario Bros.^[16] Miyamoto's favorite non-Nintendo game is Angry Birds.^[17]

Miyamoto starred in a Mega64 sketch about New Super Mario Bros.^[18] Despite being an influential figure in video games and responsible for multi-million dollar franchises, Miyamoto is said to be very humble, insisting on settling for an average income. Miyamoto is also ambidextrous, though he favors his left hand and likes to make characters that are left-handed (Bowser Jr. and Link being two examples). He rides his bike or walks to work each day, usually with his wife, whom he met on the job (she was a general manager for his current occupation).

Following the in-office passing of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in July 2015, Miyamoto worked alongside Genyo Takeda as Representative Director of Nintendo,^[2] both leading the company until Tatsumi Kimishima was inaugurated as the next president of Nintendo in September of the same year. Following Kimishima's inauguration, Miyamoto assumed the position of Creative Fellow, later Executive Fellow.

Miyamoto has stated his interest in bringing Super Mario characters to a wider audience, believing that Nintendo should be seen for its characters rather than simply as a video game company.^[19]^[5] His most recent projects with Nintendo, including Super Mario Run, Pikmin Bloom, the films The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and the Super Nintendo World theme park, exemplify this goal.

Super Mario–related work[edit]

Awards and honors[edit]

The first inductee to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame at the Interactive Achievement Awards (1998)^[23]
Subject of an episode of Icons (2002)^[24]
A star on the Walk of Game (2005)^[25]
The Chevalier award at the French Order of Arts and Letters (2006)^[26]
Featured in Time Asia's "60 Years of Asian Heroes" (2006)^[27]
GDC's Lifetime Achievement Award by the Game Developers Choice Awards (2007)^[28]
The Fellowship award in the British Academy Video Game Awards (2010)^[29]
The Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities (2012)^[30]
Recognized as a Person of Cultural Merit (2019)^[4]
Lifetime Achievement award by the Association of Media in Digital Awards (2023)^[31]
Order of Culture recipient (2026)^[5]

Gallery[edit]

Photos[edit]

Miyamoto holding Mario and Donkey Kong plushies
Miyamoto and some Super Mario character plushies from BD&A
Miyamoto with Gunpei Yokoi in 1994
Miyamoto holding a Mario figurine and wearing a Super Mario World T-shirt
Miyamoto and various Nintendo characters on pages 72 and 73 of Time Asia's 60 Years of Asian Heroes issue
Miyamoto with Donkey Kong and Mario amiibo
Miyamoto holding a Wii Remote in E3 2006
Miyamoto at E3 2006
Miyamoto at the 2007 Game Developers Conference
Shigeru Miyamoto showing the New Super Mario Bros. Wii cover
Miyamoto at E3 2010
Miyamoto next to a full-scale replica of the Standard Kart from Mario Kart 7
Miyamoto sitting in the kart
Miyamoto with a signed copy of the first issue of the Mexican Club Nintendo magazine
Miyamoto with several Luigi plushies for the Year of Luigi
Miyamoto with Tezuka and Kondo (September 13, 2015)
Group photo at the Super Mario 30 Festival event
Miyamoto, alongside Tezuka and Tsubasa Sakaguchi
Miyamoto in 2015
Miyamoto wielding a replica of Kylo Ren's lightsaber
Miyamoto from the review video of Tencent's conference for the Nintendo Switch's release in China
Miyamoto introducing Super Nintendo World (Universal Studios Japan)
Group photo to celebrate the grand opening of Super Nintendo World (Universal Studios Japan)
J. L. Bonnier, Luigi, Mario, and Miyamoto at the grand opening of Super Nintendo World (Universal Studios Japan)
Miyamoto alongside Shinya Takahashi, Mario, and Luigi at the grand opening of Super Nintendo World (Universal Studios Hollywood)
Miyamoto at the premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in Los Angeles
Miyamoto with the cast of the film and Chris Meledandri
Miyamoto and Meledandri on the cover of Variety magazine

Hand-drawn artwork[edit]

Artwork used on the Japanese Super Mario Bros. box art, illustrated by Miyamoto
Cover of Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Super Mario World, illustrated by Miyamoto
Cover of Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Super Mario World Kanketsu Hen, illustrated by Miyamoto
Cover of Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Yoshi no Tamago, illustrated by Miyamoto
Back cover of Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Yoshi no Tamago, illustrated by Miyamoto
Cover of Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Super Mario Collection, illustrated by Miyamoto
Sketch of Mario from Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook Super Mario Collection, illustrated by Miyamoto
Artwork celebrating the first anniversary of The 64 DREAM
Mario and a Nintendo GameCube controller
Donkey Kong and a Nintendo GameCube, chased by Mario
Artwork commemorating the 15th anniversary of Nintendo Power
Artwork celebrating the release of Nintendo DREAM volume 100
Mario in a doghouse
Artwork drawn for a T-shirt commemorating the 200th issue of Nintendo Power
New Super Mario Bros.
A letter addressed to Super Mario Galaxy players released by Prima Games
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition
Super Mario-kun
Artwork for the UK Official Nintendo Magazine
Artwork for Cat Mario
Illustration for the cover of Edge magazine's 100th issue
Drawing of Mario for the 84 restaurant

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Shigeru Miyamoto 宮本茂
Shigeru Miyamoto in 2026
Born	November 16, 1952 (age 73)^[1]
Super Mario–related roles	Representative director, game developer, artist, game designer
Years active	1977–present^[1]
Employer	Nintendo