Naki: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:28, 11 March 2025

Naki 「鳴き」, or "calls" in English, are legal claims on an immediately discarded tile. When an opponent discards a tile you can claim, you can call it to add it to your hand. After claiming a discard, the player's hand is considered open; an open hand cannot riichi, becomes unable to score some yaku, and have other yaku reduced in value. In addition, the tile group completed by a call is revealed and cannot be changed afterwards. However, calling allows the hand to complete faster.

Properties

For each immediate discard, players may claim a tile if:

The hand contains two out of the three tiles necessary to form a complete tile group (see below).
The claim was made immediately after the discard, before the next player's turn. Otherwise, a discarded tile remains in the discard pile.
No player has made a call with a higher priority. Ron takes priority over all other calls. Pon/kan take priority over chii.

In addition, players may not call chii/pon/kan on the last discarded tile before the game ends in exhaustive draw.

Calls are not mandatory. When making a call for a discarded tile (chii, pon, open kan), your hand is considered open. As mentioned above, open hands cannot call riichi, are ineligible for certain yaku, and receive -1 han for certain other yaku.

Any call made by any player, except riichi and calls for a win, will immediately invalidate tenhou, chiihou, double riichi, ippatsu, and the option for kyuushu kyuuhai. This means that if the player to your left calls chii on the first turn, you cannot declare double riichi.

Procedure

When making a call, the tiles used for the call are revealed and placed to the side. These tiles are still considered part of the player's hand, but cannot be changed. Therefore, each call reduces the number of tiles you can choose to discard. After making a call, the player discards a tile.

The claimed tile must be arranged sideways to indicate the claimed tile. It must also be arranged on the left, middle, or right to indicate the source of the claim. This notation helps with the enforcement of furiten, as a claimed tile is still a part of the original player's discard pile.

Tile calls

Main article: Mentsu

Tile calls can only be formed when it would complete a mentsu or complete a winning hand. These are shown below:

Chii	チー	Sequences
Pon	ポン	Three-of-a-kind
Kan	カン	Four-of-a-kind
Ron	ロン	Win on discard

Chii

Chii 「チー」 completes a sequence, to form minjun.

Only the player to the right of the discarder may call chii. In other words, you can only call chii from the left player's discards. Therefore, the tile turned sideways is always indicated on the left. Chii may be particularly subject to the rule of kuikae - when calling a sequence, you cannot discard a tile that would have completed the same sequence. See below for details.

Pon

Left	Across	Right

Pon 「ポン」 turns a pair of identical tiles into a minkou (open triplet).

Unlike chii, pon may be called from any player on the board. Because any player may call, sometimes a player's turn may be skipped.

Kan

Main article: Kan

Kan 「カン」 are triplets "upgraded" into four-of-a-kinds. Unlike the other calls, kan has some added procedures. In addition, there are three different types of kan:

Daminkan (open kan) are called like pon, except you need to already have three of the same tile.
Ankan (closed kan) can be called when four of the same tile are in your hand (without needing to claim a discarded tile). Ankan does not open your hand.
Shouminkan (added kan) can be called when you have previously called pon, then draw the fourth tile yourself. This call turns the called triplet into a kan call.

You are not allowed to call a kan immediately after a pon/open kan/chii call.

All forms of kan are still considered triplets, just with one extra tile. Therefore, in order to maintain the hand, one tile is drawn from the dead wall. Also, any form of kan reveals kandora. For more information, see the kan page.

Agari

Instance where Ron, Kan, Pon, or Chii may be called.

Agari 「アガリ」 is the generic call for a winning tile. However, it is rare, if ever, for anyone to actually call "Agari" upon winning. Instead, the term is used to describe the state of winning.

Ron

Ron 「ロン」 is a tile call to win from a discarded tile.

You must have a winning shape and at least one yaku in order to win.
You cannot ron under furiten.

Note that ron does not open the hand, however it does open the group of tiles. This means that, when competing a triplet via ron, the triplet is worth reduced fu, and the triplet no longer counts as a "closed triplet" in regards to fu or sanankou / suuankou. The hand itself is not opened, though, so yaku like iipeikou are unaffected (even if the winning tile completes the iipeikou, it still counts).

Call priority

When multiple players can call on a discard, the following takes priority (in order):

Ron (Agari)
Kan or Pon
Chii

It is impossible for kan and pon to be called simultaneously; kan requires 3 copies of a tile in hand, pon requires 2 more copies of said tile, and there are only 4 copies of each tile. It is possible for pon/kan and chii to be called together; the player who calls pon gets the tile. A call for ron/agari will override any other tile call.

In real-life play

When playing with physical tiles, the following modifications to call priority may be used:^[1]

If both chii and pon (or kan) are called at the same time, or if the pon is called first, the pon will take priority as normal.
If chii is called, then pon (or kan) is called noticeably after the chii, the chii happens and pon is invalidated. (You cannot obviously delay a pon to check if an opponent wants to chii.)
A ron call, even if called late, still takes priority over all other calls.

Players who want to call pon should do so immediately, while players who want to call chii should wait a few moments to check if anyone wants to pon. To maintain the pace of the game, players should think about what tiles they want to call before they are discarded.

Kuikae

Main article: Kuikae

Kuikae is a rule which, when making a call, prevents you from immediately discarding a tile that could have completed that call. Under kuikae, calling pon on a 5-pin, then discarding a 5-pin is not allowed. Similarly, after calling chii on a 4-sou with 23-sou, you cannot discard a 1-sou or 4-sou. You are allowed to discard these tiles on any turn afterwards, just not on the turn you made the call. While it is not a fundamental rule, the kuikae restriction is common.

Kuisagari

Main article: Menzenchin#Yaku

Kuisagari 「喰い下がり」 is a property of some yaku to lose value when called open, compensating for the increased speed. When the hand is open, these yaku lose 1 han each:

From 2 han to 1 han	From 3 han to 2 han	From 6 han to 5 han
Sanshoku	Honitsu	Chinitsu
Ittsu	Junchan
Chanta

Some yaku can only be scored in a closed hand - this is distinct from kuisagari. For example, ryanpeikou is impossible to score with an open hand; it does not drop from 3 -> 2 han. The other yaku can be scored open without penalty.

Atozuke

Main article: Atozuke

Atozuke is when a hand has no guaranteed yaku, but can gain yaku with a certain type of winning tile. This means that some of the "winning" tiles cannot be won off of due to a lack of yaku.

Example:

Waiting for: or

If the hand obtains the haku, it gains the yaku of yakuhai. If it obtains the 9-pin, it cannot win due to a lack of yaku.

Closed tile calls

Fa	ファ	(Rarely used) Picking a flower dora
Kan	カン	Forming a quad
Pei Pei nuki (Kita)^{[n 1]}	北北抜き	Picking a North dora
Riichi	リーチ	Ready hand declaration
Tsumo	ツモ	Win by self-draw

These tile calls do not apply to discards, and therefore, do not open your hand. Just like the discard calls, these calls are announcements.

Fa

Main article: Dora#Nukidora

In case flower tiles are used (which is very rare in Japanese mahjong), fa 「ファ or 花」 is the call for a flower nukidora.

Kan

Main article: Kan

Apart from claiming a discard to form a quad, a quad may also be formed by adding the fourth tile from the hand to the open triplet, or by taking out four identical tiles form the hand.

Pei nuki (kita)

Main article: Sanma

Pei nuki 「北抜き」 or simply pei 「北」 is the call for a North nukidora in three-player mahjong. It is commonly called kita in English-localized mahjong platforms.^{[n 1]}

Riichi

Main article: Riichi

Riichi 「リーチ」 is a player's declaration for a ready hand. If desired, a player may announce riichi prior to discarding and invoke the rules involving riichi as a yaku. Riichi does not interrupt opponents' ippatsu, chiihou, etc.

Tsumo

Tsumo 「ツモ」 is the declaration for winning by self-draw. This may apply to any hand, open or closed. With a closed hand, it also counts as for the yaku, mentsumo. Even when furiten, it is acceptable to win the hand.

Open vs closed

Main article: Naki strategy

Before making a tile call, players should consider "is it worth opening the hand, or is it better to remain closed?" Naturally, there are advantages to both. For starters, players should know the yaku and their hand values. A closed hand can call riichi and is thus worth more; an open hand is faster. Players should consider their point standing, hand value, number of tile draws left, and other factors before opening. For more details, see naki strategy.

Yakuman hands, assuming they can be won open, don't reduce in value after a call. Since they are so hard to complete, opening is often necessary to actually win with one.

Notes

↑ ^{Jump up to: 1.0} ^1.1 In platforms like Mahjong Soul and Riichi City, the button and on-screen announcement for this call in the Japanese interface says pei nuki 「北抜き」 (lit. "taking out a North"), and the Japanese character voices will usually call "pei" (or sometimes "pei nuki" or "nukidora"), while the English interface says kita.
Kita is the regular Japanese word for north, whereas pei is the Japanese name of the North tile in mahjong, borrowed from Mandarin Chinese. Both are written as 北 in Japanese, so it is possible that "kita" originates from an error of the Mahjong Soul localisation team.

References

↑ WRC Rules 2022

External links

和了

Agari calls (ron, tsumo) in Japanese Wikipedia

槓

Kan in Japanese Wikipedia

副露

Melding tile calls (chii, pon, open kan) in Japanese Wikipedia

北抜き

Pei nuki (kita) in Japanese Wikipedia

立直

Riichi in Japanese Wikipedia

[kita-2] {Jump up to: 1.0} ^1.1 In platforms like Mahjong Soul and Riichi City, the button and on-screen announcement for this call in the Japanese interface says pei nuki 「北抜き」 (lit. "taking out a North"), and the Japanese character voices will usually call "pei" (or sometimes "pei nuki" or "nukidora"), while the English interface says kita.
Kita is the regular Japanese word for north, whereas pei is the Japanese name of the North tile in mahjong, borrowed from Mandarin Chinese. Both are written as 北 in Japanese, so it is possible that "kita" originates from an error of the Mahjong Soul localisation team.

[1] WRC Rules 2022

[1]

[n 1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Naki''' {{kana|鳴き}}, or "calls", are legal claims on an immediately discarded tile. When an opponent discards a tile you can claim, you can call it to add it to your hand. Upon claiming a discard, the player's hand is then considered ''open''. An open hand is unable to call [[riichi]] and is unable to score yaku like [[menzen tsumo]]. In addition, some yaku decrease in value after opening. However, opening the hand can allow you to complete it faster.
+'''Naki''' {{kana|鳴き}}, or "calls" in English, are legal claims on an immediately discarded tile. When an opponent discards a tile you can claim, you can call it to add it to your hand. After claiming a discard, the player's hand is considered ''[[open]]''; an open hand cannot [[riichi]], becomes unable to score some yaku, and have other yaku reduced in value. In addition, the [[tile group]] completed by a call is revealed and cannot be changed afterwards. However, calling allows the hand to complete faster.
 == Properties ==
 For each '''immediate''' discard, players may claim a tile if:
-* The hand contains two out of the three tiles necessary to form a complete [[mentsu|meld]] (see below).
+* The hand contains two out of the three tiles necessary to form a complete [[tile group]] ([[#Tile calls|see below]]).
 * The claim was made immediately after the discard, before the next player's turn. Otherwise, a discarded tile remains in the discard pile.
-* No player has made a call that has a higher priority. (Ron takes priority over all other calls. Pon/kan take priority over chii.)
+* No player has made a call with a higher priority. Ron takes priority over all other calls. Pon/kan take priority over chii.
 In addition, players may not call chii/pon/kan on the last discarded tile before the game ends in [[exhaustive draw]].
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Calls are not mandatory. When making a call for a discarded tile (chii, pon, open kan), your hand is considered open. As mentioned above, open hands cannot call riichi, are ineligible for certain [[yaku]], and receive -1 han for certain other yaku.
-Any call made by any player, except riichi, will immediately invalidate [[tenhou and chiihou|tenhou]], [[chiihou]], [[double riichi]], [[ippatsu]], and the option for [[kyuushu kyuuhai]]. For example, if the player to your left calls chii on the first turn, you cannot declare double riichi.
+Any call made by any player, except riichi and calls for a win, will immediately invalidate [[tenhou and chiihou|tenhou]], [[chiihou]], [[double riichi]], [[ippatsu]], and the option for [[kyuushu kyuuhai]]. This means that if the player to your left calls chii on the first turn, you cannot declare double riichi.
 === Procedure ===
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 '''Chii''' {{kana|チー}} completes a sequence, to form minjun.
-Only the player to the right of the discarded may call chii. In other words, you can only call chii from the left player's discards. Therefore, the tile turned sideways is always indicated on the left. Chii may be particularly subject to the rule of [[#Kuikae|kuikae]] - when calling a sequence, you cannot discard a tile that would have completed the same sequence. See below for details.
+Only the player to the right of the discarder may call chii. In other words, you can only call chii from the left player's discards. Therefore, the tile turned sideways is always indicated on the left. Chii may be particularly subject to the rule of [[#Kuikae|kuikae]] - when calling a sequence, you cannot discard a tile that would have completed the same sequence. See below for details.
 ===Pon===
@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 ===Ron===
-'''Ron''' {{kana|ロン}} is a tile call to win from a discarded tile. Under [[furiten]], a player may not call ron; otherwise, it is a violation of rules and subject to [[chombo]] penalty. Note: you must also have a [[yaku]] in order to declare a win.
+'''Ron''' {{kana|ロン}} is a tile call to win from a discarded tile.
+* You must have a [[mentsu|winning shape]] and at least one [[yaku]] in order to win.
+* You cannot ron under [[furiten]].
-Ron opens the ''group'' of tiles, but does not open the ''hand''. When competing a triplet via ron, the triplet is worth reduced [[fu]], and the triplet no longer counts as a "closed triplet" in regards to [[sanankou]] / [[suuankou]]. The hand itself is not opened, though, so yaku like [[iipeikou]] are unaffected (even if the winning tile completes the iipeikou, it still counts).
+Note that ron does not open the ''hand'', however it does open the ''group'' of tiles. This means that, when competing a triplet via ron, the triplet is worth reduced [[fu]], and the triplet no longer counts as a "closed triplet" in regards to [[fu]] or [[sanankou]] / [[suuankou]]. The hand itself is not opened, though, so yaku like [[iipeikou]] are unaffected (even if the winning tile completes the iipeikou, it still counts).
-===Call precedence===
+==Call priority==
-When multiple players can call a tile, the following takes precedence:
+When multiple players can call on a discard, the following takes priority (in order):
-#Ron or Agari
+#Ron (Agari)
 #Kan or Pon
 #Chii
-It is impossible for kan and pon to be called simultaneously. A call for kan requires 3 copies of a tile, the call for pon requires 2 more copies of a tile, but there are only 4 tiles total. It is possible for pon/kan and chii to be called together; the player who calls pon gets the tile. A call for ron/agari will override any other tile call.
+It is impossible for kan and pon to be called simultaneously; kan requires 3 copies of a tile in hand, pon requires 2 more copies of said tile, and there are only 4 copies of each tile. It is possible for pon/kan and chii to be called together; the player who calls pon gets the tile. A call for ron/agari will override any other tile call.
+===In real-life play===
+When playing with physical tiles, the following modifications to call priority may be used:<ref>[https://www.worldriichi.org/wrc-rules WRC Rules 2022]</ref>
+* If both chii and pon (or kan) are called at the same time, or if the pon is called first, the pon will take priority as normal.
+* If chii is called, then pon (or kan) is called noticeably after the chii, the chii happens and pon is invalidated. (''You cannot obviously delay a pon to check if an opponent wants to chii.'')
+* A ron call, even if called late, still takes priority over all other calls.
+Players who want to call pon should do so immediately, while players who want to call chii should wait a few moments to check if anyone wants to pon. To maintain the pace of the game, players should think about what tiles they want to call before they are discarded.
 == Kuikae ==
@@ Line 88: / Line 98: @@
 ==Kuisagari==
-{{main|List of yaku}}
+{{main|Menzenchin#Yaku}}
-'''Kuisagari''' {{kana|喰い下がり}} is a property of some yaku to lose value when [[naki|called open]]. When calling a discard and opening the hand, the player sacrifices 1-han per yaku affected by this rule. This is obviously a negative, though calling allows you to complete the hand faster.
-The following yaku are affected directly by kuisagari:
+'''Kuisagari''' {{kana|喰い下がり}} is a property of some yaku to lose value when [[naki|called open]], compensating for the increased speed. When the hand is open, these yaku lose 1 han each:
 {| class="wikitable" width=50%
@@ Line 105: / Line 113: @@
 |}
-Similarly, some yaku can only be scored with a closed hand. Certain yaku, like [[chiitoitsu]] and [[mentsumo]], are closed based on their structure or nature. Other yaku, like [[iipeikou]], the requirement of a closed hand is entirely artificial. Unlike instances of kuisagari, you cannot use these yaku to fulfill the yaku requirement of an open hand: these are not considered 0 han yaku. For [[ryanpeikou]] in particular, if it were affected by kuisagari, it would score 2 han when opened. But in actuality, you cannot achieve ryanpeikou at all with an open hand.
+Some yaku can only be scored in a closed hand - this is distinct from kuisagari. For example, [[ryanpeikou]] is impossible to score with an open hand; it does not drop from 3 -> 2 han. The other yaku can be scored open without penalty.
-Finally, some yaku are not affected by kuisagari.  Even when open, they retain their original han value. These are [[yakuhai]], [[toitoi]], [[sanankou]], [[sanshoku doukou]], [[shousangen]], [[sankantsu]], as well as any [[yakuman]] that can be scored with an open hand.
+==Atozuke==
+{{main|Atozuke}}
-===Atozuke===
+'''Atozuke''' is when a hand has no guaranteed yaku, but can gain yaku with a certain type of winning tile. This means that some of the "winning" tiles cannot be won off of due to a lack of yaku.
-{{main|Atozuke}}
+Example:
+{{#mjt:111m45699p55z}} {{#mjt:7'89s}}  Waiting for: {{#mjt:9p}} or {{#mjt:5z}}
-A side effect to kuisagari involves '''atozuke'''.  Tile calls may put a hand into position where one of its waiting tiles do not produce valid yaku.  With this in mind, tile calls must be made with careful discretion.
+If the hand obtains the [[haku]], it gains the yaku of [[yakuhai]]. If it obtains the 9-pin, it cannot win due to a lack of yaku.
 == Closed tile calls ==
 {| class="wikitable" style="width:30%; min-width:250px;"
+|-
+|nowrap| Fa    ||align=center nowrap| ファ   || (Rarely used) Picking a [[nukidora|flower dora]]
 |-
 |nowrap| Kan    ||align=center nowrap| カン   || Forming a quad
 |-
-|nowrap| Kita   ||align=center nowrap| キタ   || Picking a North [[dora]]
+|nowrap| Pei<br/>Pei nuki<br/>(Kita){{note|name=kita}}   ||align=center nowrap| 北<br/>北抜き<br/>　   || Picking a North [[dora]]
 |-
 |nowrap| Riichi ||align=center nowrap| リーチ || Ready hand declaration
@@ Line 127: / Line 141: @@
 These tile calls do not apply to discards, and therefore, do not open your hand. Just like the discard calls, these calls are announcements.
+===Fa===
+{{main|Dora#Nukidora}}
+In case [[flower tiles]] are used (which is very rare in Japanese mahjong), '''fa''' {{kana|ファ or 花}} is the call for a flower [[nukidora]].
 ===Kan===
@@ Line 132: / Line 151: @@
 Apart from claiming a discard to form a quad, a quad may also be formed by adding the fourth tile from the hand to the open triplet, or by taking out four identical tiles form the hand.
-===Kita===
+===Pei nuki (kita)===
 {{main|Sanma}}
-In some rules of [[sanma|three-player mahjong]], North tiles may be picked and functions as a [[dora]].
+'''Pei nuki''' {{kana|北抜き}} or simply '''pei''' {{kana|北}} is the call for a North [[nukidora]] in [[sanma|three-player mahjong]]. It is commonly called '''kita''' in English-localized mahjong platforms.{{note|name=kita|In platforms like [[Mahjong Soul]] and [[Riichi City]], the button and on-screen announcement for this call in the Japanese interface says pei nuki {{kana|北抜き}} (lit. "taking out a North"), and the Japanese character voices will usually call "pei" (or sometimes "pei nuki" or "[[nukidora]]"), while the English interface says kita.<br/>Kita is the regular Japanese word for north, whereas pei is the Japanese name of the North tile in mahjong, borrowed from Mandarin Chinese. Both are written as 北 in Japanese, so it is possible that "kita" originates from an error of the Mahjong Soul localisation team.}}
 ===Riichi===
 {{main|Riichi}}
-'''Riichi''' {{kana|リーチ}} is a player's declaration for a [[tenpai|ready hand]].  If desired, a player may announce riichi prior to discarding and invoke the rules involving riichi as a yaku. Riichi does not interrupt opponents' tenhou, chiihou, etc.
+'''Riichi''' {{kana|リーチ}} is a player's declaration for a [[tenpai|ready hand]].  If desired, a player may announce riichi prior to discarding and invoke the rules involving riichi as a yaku. Riichi does not interrupt opponents' ippatsu, chiihou, etc.
 ===Tsumo===
@@ Line 150: / Line 169: @@
 [[Yakuman]] hands, assuming they can be won open, don't reduce in value after a call. Since they are so hard to complete, opening is often necessary to actually win with one.
+==Notes==
+{{notes}}
+==References==
+{{references}}
 ==External links==
+{{jpwiki|和了|Agari calls (ron, tsumo)}}
+{{jpwiki|槓|Kan}}
+{{jpwiki|副露|Melding tile calls (chii, pon, open kan)}}
+{{jpwiki|北抜き|Pei nuki (kita)}}
+{{jpwiki|立直|Riichi}}
 [[Category:Terminology]]
 [[Category:Game rules]]