Miyamoto Shrine> Shrine History

The History of Miyamoto Shrine

The development of MiyamotoShrine.com has been pathetically long in duration, thanks in equal parts to procrastination and excessive videogame playing. While there's no money to be had in running a fan site these days, there is a great satisfaction to be had by sharing an admiration with thousands of readers, and that's precisely the motivation behind Miyamoto Shrine. We're all about love here. Love, and totally kick butt videogames.

MS came about for a very simple reason. Before now there were no dedicated Shigeru Miyamoto fan sites. Unbelievable eh? Nowhere could you go to find an archive of past interviews, a catalogue of masterpieces, a battery of photographs, an ever-changing biography, a handful of heartfelt tributes, and enough reader interaction to keep you busy for days. And while MS isn't filled to the brim with content just yet, it's with the help of readers like yourselves and our own continued efforts, that the archives of Miyamoto greatness will be forever filled and available to the eyes of appreciative gamers 'round the world.

The actual history of the site goes something like this- I was writing for the great Nintendorks.com a few years back and wrote an article that touched upon the core of my Nintendo infatuation. The article was entitled "Master of Imagination: A Tribute to Shigeru Miyamoto" and went on to become the only article to ever win the (now defunct) IGN Snowglobe award. Researching that article had made me hungry for all things Miyamoto, and I was surprised to find very few sites with the material I craved. Then that big light bulb came on above my head.

Finally interviewing Shigeru face to face at the 2000 Electronic Entertainment Expo was the ultimate experience for me. I was on cloud 9 and nothing could bring me down, much thanks to Mike Wolf & crew. Then August of that year came and I made my way to Spaceworld with Adam Doree and GamerWeb. There, on Miyamoto's home turf, I was able to finally witness Nintendo's next console, and once again talk to Miyamoto face to face. It was decided. I was going to go through with the plan and make Miyamoto a suitable home on the web.

In April of 2001 tragedy struck my family and chaos ensued in my life. I had truly lost all enthusiasm. Food didn't taste good. Videogames weren't fun. Movies and TV pretty much sucked. All the songs on the radio sounded the same. Life just wasn't fun for me. If it weren't for Andy Robinson, my always-enthused British sidekick, the Shrine would have lost any and all forward momentum it had going for it. In Andy I found another Shigeru fan whom fate had blessed much the way it had blessed me. Andy had met Miyamoto on a train in London of all places, and managed to have a personal and impressive conversation with the man.

I knew right away we had to be partners.

And so while you're staring at a bunch of code and characters on your computer monitor, thinking to yourself how suspiciously similar this site is to the old Nintendorks layout, know that we made the site for the same reason you came to it. We made it because we know who the greatest videogame designer in the world is. Because we want to honor him. Because we respect his wise and oft unique philosophies. Because we find him sexy. Because we love his creations. And because we want more.

Welcome to Miyamoto Shrine.

Carl Johnson

May 27th 2002

Almost one week ago Shigeru Miyamoto received a business card from our own Carl Johnson with the site's name and URL, and he now knows about the Shrine. Click here to see a small low-res movie of him reading the card, or view the photos below.

Missed an Update? Click here!     Bored? Hit the Forums!