Japanese mahjong setup
Before a game of Japanese mahjong can start, it must be set up.
Setup for each match
Equipment
Japanese mahjong is played with a set of 136 tiles (34 unique tiles, 4 copies of each type). It is played on a square table. A mahjong mat, while not necessary, should be used in order to protect the tiles from wear.
Wind seating
At the start of the match, each player is assigned a wind seat - this determines the first dealer and dealer order. A variety of methods can be used to pick the initial seating, such as rolling dice, or placing four wind tiles down and randomly drawing from them. In league/tournament play, the seats may be pre-determined. Once the seats are determined, the game can begin.
Setup for each hand
Building walls
At the beginning of each hand, the tiles are shuffled and placed into walls. Each player is responsible for building their own wall. A wall is 17 tiles long, 2 tiles high, and is placed in front of each player.
Breaking the wall
After the walls are built, the dealer determines the initial breakage of the wall using a dice roll. Two dice are rolled, and the sum is used to pick a player:
- 1, 5, 9: East (Dealer)
- 2, 6, 10: South
- 3, 9, 11: West
- 4, 8, 12: North
(In other words, the dealer starts at 1, and each # past 1 cycles the player counterclockwise.)
The wall of the player at the end of this count is broken, where the player counts with the same dice number from the first tile on the right side of their wall towards the left.
A few rule variations include another die roll, where first die roll determines which wall to break, and the second die roll determines which tile within the wall is broken. The second roll is often omitted in order to save time.
Dead wall
After the walls are broken, the dead wall is created. From the initial wall break, players count 7 tiles to the right of the initial break, and breaks that section of the wall. This leaves 14 tiles (7 tiles double stacked) left for the dead wall. The third tile closest to the initial break is flipped over and used as a dora indicator.
Dealing the tiles
From the initial break, the dealer (East) begins by taking a group of 4 tiles from the regular wall. The South takes the next group of 4. Then West with 4 more, and North with 4 more. This procedure is repeated 2 more times, to ensure an initial deal of 12 tiles for each player. At this point, the dealer East takes the first and third tiles on the top row of the wall. South takes the next available draw, then West, and finally North. At this initial deal of the tiles, the dealer East should have 14 tiles, and the rest have 13. The game hand begins with the dealer discarding 1 tile.
Players are recommended to arrange their tiles according to suit, but it is not necessary. Sufficiently experienced players are able to read their hands with the tiles in randomized order.
Automatic tables
An automatic table can be used to save time. Automatic tables can build walls, and some can even deal the starting hands. The rest of the processes are done normally by the players.
Since automatic tables are expensive (costing around ¥2000 / 2000 USD at the cheapest), do not expect to use an automatic table for personal play. However, they are not uncommon, and are often used in commerical venues.