Mahjong equipment

A physical game of Japanese mahjong is normally played with a set of 136 tiles, along with a few other pieces of equipment, such as dice and game mats. When playing online, there is no need to consider equipment.

Japanese tiles

Japanese mahjong sets usually come with 144 tiles in a case. Japanese tiles are usually about the size 16 mm x 19 mm x 26 mm (WLH), and are capable of standing on their own. The tiles are often dual colored, with the backs sharing the same color.

136 of the 144 tiles are used for Japanese mahjong itself, leaving 8 tiles left unused:

• 4 red fives: one for manzu and souzu, and two for pinzu. To use these, replace a copy of each of the regular fives with the red fives of the corresponding suit. Games are typically played with 3 red fives, leaving the second red 5p out of the game.
• 4 flower tiles. These may be used as nukidora.

Of the 136 tiles in play, there are 34 unique types of tiles, with 4 copies of each type. The tiles may be subgrouped into further categories:

• Number tiles (27 types): There are three numbered suits - Manzu, Pinzu, Souzu. Each suit has tiles numbered from 1-9. The three numbered suits are mostly identical, but each tile group must be formed with one suit (though a hand can have multiple suits). Number tiles can be used in sequences.
• Honor tiles (7 types): There are two distinct groups of honor tiles. All honor tiles cannot be used in sequences.
  • Winds (4 types): East, South, West, North. Wind tiles are unique as their value changes with the round wind and seat wind.
  • Dragons (3 types): White (Haku), Green (Hatsu), Red (Chun).

All tiles listed below follow the order used for dora.

Standard Japanese mahjong tiles

Pin

Ii pin	Ryan pin	San pin	Suu pin	Uu pin	Rou pin	Chii pin	Paa pin	Kyuu pin

Pinzu 「筒子」, or pin 「筒」 for short (lit. "tubes" or "cylinders"), are commonly called dots or circles in English. The symbols originally represent coins.

Sou

Ii sou	Ryan sou	San sou	Suu sou	Uu sou	Rou sou	Chii sou	Paa sou	Kyuu sou

Souzu 「索子」, or sou 「索」 (lit. "strings"), are commonly called bamboo or sticks in English. The symbols originally represent strings with copper coins strung on them.

Ordered 1-9, it is special to note the 1-sou tile which is marked with a large bird instead of 1-stick, to discourage cheating by tile alteration.

Man

Ii wan	Ryan wan	San wan	Suu wan	Uu wan	Rou wan	Chii wan	Paa wan	Kyuu wan

Manzu 「萬子」, or man/wan 「萬」 (lit. "ten thousands"), are commonly called characters in English. They originally represent sets of 100 strings with each 100 coins.

Each tile displays two characters. A Chinese character or Japanese kanji are used to indicate the numbers 1-9 on the upper side of each tile. The lower character on each tile means "ten thousand". While some sets have the alphanumeric representations of the numbers superscript on the upper left or right corners, standard Japanese sets lack these alphanumeric superscripts. For such sets, it is best to memorize the kanji for 1-9.

Winds

Ton	Nan	Shaa	Pei

Kazehai 「風牌」, or winds, include four types of tiles: East, South, West, and North. The wind tiles correlate to the player seating, and so therefore, it is best to remember the wind tiles in the East, South, West, and North order, as they correspond to the seating order. Likewise, this is significant to note for yakuhai.

Dragons

Haku	Hatsu	Chun

Sangenpai 「三元牌」, or dragon tiles in English, consist of white, green, and red. Just noting their color is sufficient for play.

Note that in a lot of physical tile sets, the green dragon 「發」 is printed in black, just like the wind tiles, making it necessary to learn to distinguish it from the wind tiles when playing with those tile sets.

Other tiles

Flowers

An example of Japanese flower tiles

Japanese tile sets usually come with a few hanahai or fapai 「花牌」 ("flower tiles"). These are unique tiles with floral designs that are marked with kanji to differentiate them. Their designs are not standardized, so they can look very different between sets. Flower tiles are very rarely used in Japanese mahjong. If they are used, they usually function as nukidora. Rulesets that use them are referred to as hana mahjong 「花麻雀」 ("flower mahjong").

Japanese sets usually only include 4 flower tiles which are also called season tiles 「季節牌」. They are marked with kanji for spring 「春」, summer 「夏」, autumn 「秋」, and winter 「冬」.

Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter

In some cases, the four gentlemen 「四君子」 are included in addition to the seasons. They are marked with kanji for plum 「梅」, orchid 「蘭」, chrysanthemum 「菊」, and bamboo 「竹」. These are very rare in Japanese mahjong sets, but standard in Chinese sets.

Plum	Orchid	Chrysanthemum	Bamboo

Both in English and in Japanese, the term "flower tiles" may also be used to refer to the four gentlemen exclusively, without including the season tiles.

Mats

Mahjong mat used to protect tiles from hard surfaces.

Mahjong mats are used to provide mahjong tiles a softer surface to slide all over, thus protecting the tiles from wear and tear. Mats come in various sizes, but they are all square shaped. Junk mats provide a plastic perimeter with slots for point sticks.

Tenbou

Main article: Tenbou

Tenbou 「点棒」 are the point sticks used to keep track of points. When points are exchanged between players, tenbou are used to facilitate said exchange. Gambling games may tie these point sticks to money.

Chips (e.g. poker chips) or other types of counters may be used instead of tenbou, so long as their values are agreed beforehand.

Dice

Two dice are used to determine the wall break at the start of each hand.

Round indicator

Dealer marker, showing the East face.

A dealer marker is used throughout the game to either indicate the current dealer, or the initial dealer. In the case of the latter, the dice are used to indicate the current dealer, as it gets passed around from one dealer to the next. It is also used to indicate the current round, either the East Round or South Round.

Automatic tables

Main article: Automatic mahjong table

Automatic mahjong tables are used to expedite the process of tile shuffling and wall building. With the push of a button, players can save time as the wall building process is performed by machine.

Playing cards

Mahjong playing cards are an alternative medium to play the game, where cards are used in place of tiles. They are considerably cheaper than mahjong tiles, but tiles are considered the standard way to play, since playing cards are more cumbersome to use.

External links

• Different tile brands
• Tileset comparison on atwiki.jp (entirely in Japanese)