Kokushi musou

Kokushi musou, also simply known as kokushi, is one of the standard yakuman hands. This hand consists of one of each terminal tile from each suit and one of each honor tiles. The 14th tile must be a duplicate of any terminal or honor tile. This hand is one of the two exceptions of the "four melds and one pair" rule of forming a hand, where the other exception is the chii toitsu. This hand is closed only.

Tile diagram

Kokushi musou single wait

Winning tile:

Kokushi musou 13-way wait

Winning tile: Any one of the tiles shown here

Winning from this wait is worth two yakuman in some rules.

English reference

Thirteen orphans

Formation

Restricted as closed only, this hand must draw at least 12 of the 13 tile types, among the honors and terminals. If a pair exists within the hand upon tenpai, then naturally, the hand is waiting on the last remaining tile type not yet in the hand. In turn, this hand will be deemed impossible for completion, when all 4 of any of the tile types are no longer available. Yet, if a player manages to develop the 13 wait variety, then this hand greatly increases its chances of completion, needing to simply pair any of the 13 types.

Value

This hand is a yakuman hand which automatically awards 32000 points to a non-dealer winner, or 48000 points to a dealer winner.

Meaning and usage

The word kokushi can be translated as "distinguished citizen"; the word musou is often translated as "peerless". The word kokushi should not split up and expressed as "Koku shimusou". This is an incorrect spelling.