11 Facts About Eiji Aonuma

Eiji Aonuma is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer at Nintendo.

Eiji Aonuma is a senior officer within their Nintendo EPD division and serves as the producer of the Legend of Zelda franchise.

Eiji Aonuma graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1988 with a master's degree in composition design, working on animated puppets called karakuri.

Eiji Aonuma landed a job at Nintendo without ever having played a video game before.

Eiji Aonuma asked his girlfriend about video games, and she introduced him to two Yuji Horii games, Dragon Quest on the Famicom and The Portopia Serial Murder Case on the PC-8801, which were the first video games he ever played.

Eiji Aonuma was director on 1996's Marvelous: Mohitotsu no Takarajima for the Super NES.

Miyamoto later recruited Eiji Aonuma to join the development team for The Legend of Zelda series.

Eiji Aonuma was a lead designer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its sequel The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Eiji Aonuma has since led the production of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Link's Crossbow Training, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom.

Eiji Aonuma plays percussion as a founding member of the Wind Wakers, a brass band formed in 1995.

Eiji Aonuma received a lifetime achievement award at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards.