- Riichi mahjong at a glance
- The 136 tiles and who sits where
- Building the wall and dealing the hands
- What a winning hand looks like
- A turn, and calling chii, pon and kan
- Riichi, tenpai and furiten explained
- Dora, han and the scoring basics
- How a hand ends and how the game is won
- My verdict on learning riichi
- Frequently asked questions
These mahjong rules cover the Japanese style, called riichi: four players use 136 tiles, drawing and discarding until someone builds a winning hand of four sets and a pair. You can't win without at least one scoring pattern called a yaku, and the player with the most points after the east and south rounds wins the game.
This page covers Japanese (riichi) mahjong only, as set out in the European Mahjong Association Riichi Rulebook, 2025 edition (file version 1.1), as of November 2026. It isn't the American card-based style, and it isn't Chinese Official or Hong Kong rules. The rulebook doesn't cover those, so neither does this page.
Riichi mahjong at a glance
Here's the whole game on one table, then each part in the order you'll meet it at the table.
| Question | What the rulebook says |
|---|---|
| How many players? | Four, each with a seat wind: East, South, West or North |
| How many tiles? | 136: 34 tile types, four of each |
| Starting points | 30,000 each |
| Winning hand | Four sets and a pair, plus at least one yaku |
| Special complete hands | Seven Pairs and Thirteen Orphans |
| Turn order | Counter-clockwise, starting with East |
| Ways to win | Tsumo (self-draw) or ron (on someone's discard) |
| Length of a game | Two rounds, east and south, of at least four hands each |
| Who wins? | The player with the most points at the end of the south round |
The 136 tiles and who sits where
A riichi set has three suits, circles, bamboo and characters, each numbered one to nine. Ones and nines are called terminals. On top of the suits there are seven honour types: four winds (east, south, west and north) and three dragons (white, green and red). Four copies of each of those 34 tile types make 136 tiles.
Some tiles you might find in a box aren't used. Flower, season and joker tiles stay out of riichi, and red fives aren't used under the EMA rules.
Players draw lots with one of each wind tile to decide their seats. East is the starting player, and everyone begins with 30,000 points.
Building the wall and dealing the hands
- Each player builds a face-down wall seventeen tiles long and two tiles high.
- The four walls are pushed together into a square.
- East rolls two dice to decide where the wall is broken.
- Fourteen tiles are set aside as the dead wall. A dora indicator is turned over there (more on that below).
- Players take tiles until each has thirteen. East takes one more and starts with fourteen.
- East begins. Because they already hold fourteen tiles, they don't draw on their first turn: they go straight to a discard.
What a winning hand looks like
A winning hand is four sets and a pair. A set is one of three things:
- a sequence: three consecutive tiles of the same suit, such as 3-4-5 of bamboo
- a triplet: three identical tiles
- a quad: four identical tiles
Two details trip people up. Sequences can't be made with winds or dragons, and they can't wrap around the end of a suit, so 8-9-1 isn't a sequence. There are also two special complete hands that don't follow the four-sets-and-a-pair shape: Seven Pairs and Thirteen Orphans.
The yaku rule
This is the rule most beginners miss. A complete hand isn't enough on its own: it also needs at least one yaku, a scoring pattern from the rulebook's list. Without one, you can't declare a win, however finished the hand looks. Bonus tiles called dora add value but aren't a yaku, so they can't rescue a hand with no pattern.
You don't need the whole list to start. A few common ones, as the rulebook defines them:
- Riichi: a concealed hand one tile from complete, declared with a riichi bet.
- All Simples: a hand with no terminals and no honours.
- Pinfu: a concealed hand with four sequences and a pair that isn't dragons, your seat wind or the round wind, won on a two-sided wait.
- Dragon Triplet: a triplet or quad of dragons.
A turn, and calling chii, pon and kan
Play goes counter-clockwise from East. A normal turn is a draw from the wall followed by a discard. If you can't or won't declare a win, a quad or riichi, you end the turn by discarding one tile face up.
Other players can claim your discard with a call. You say the word, show the matching tiles from your hand, and then discard.
| Call | What it claims | Who can claim it |
|---|---|---|
| Chii | A discard to complete a sequence | Only from the player on your left |
| Pon | A discard to complete a triplet | From any other player |
| Kan | A discard to complete a quad | From any other player |
| Ron | A discard to complete a winning hand | Any player who can win on it |
When calls clash, a win beats any other claim on the same tile. If two players want the same tile for a set at the same moment, a triplet or quad call beats a sequence call.
One knock-on effect: once you've claimed a set, your hand is open rather than concealed. That cuts the value of some yaku and rules out others, such as riichi, which needs a concealed hand.
And a small point of etiquette with real teeth: you don't call a win by saying mahjong. The rulebook counts only ron and tsumo as win declarations.
Riichi, tenpai and furiten explained
These three words come up in almost every hand, so it's worth learning them early.
- Tenpai: your hand is one tile away from complete. Noten means you're not waiting on a tile.
- Riichi: with a concealed tenpai hand, you declare riichi, discard a tile sideways and place a 1,000 point bet. From then on you can't change your hand. You can declare it only if at least one tile is left in the wall.
- Furiten: if any tile that would complete your hand is among your own discards, you can't win by ron. You can still win by tsumo, drawing the tile yourself.
Furiten is the sneaky one. It means you shouldn't throw away a tile that would finish your own hand, because doing so shuts off every win on someone else's discard.
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Dora, han and the scoring basics
A dora indicator is turned over in the dead wall. The dora is the next tile in that suit, so a 9 points to the 1 of the same suit. Dora add han but aren't a yaku. Ura dora, an extra set of bonus tiles, count only for players who declared riichi.
A winning hand is scored in han (doubles) and minipoints (fu). Han come from yaku plus dora, and minipoints are rounded up to the next 10. Seven Pairs is always exactly 25 minipoints. The rulebook recommends its scoring tables rather than working the sum out by hand, and that's the sensible way to learn.
Big hands are capped at limit values:
| Limit hand | Han needed |
|---|---|
| Mangan | 5 han, or 4 han with 30 or more minipoints, or 3 han with 60 or more minipoints |
| Haneman | 6 or 7 han |
| Baiman | 8 to 10 han |
| Sanbaiman | 11 or more han |
| Yakuman | Above sanbaiman |
Who pays depends on how you won. Win on a discard and the discarder pays. Win by self-draw and all three opponents pay. East receives and pays double. Each counter on the table adds 300 points to a win.
How a hand ends and how the game is won
If the wall runs out with no winner, the hand is an exhaustive draw. Noten players then pay a total penalty of 3,000 points to tenpai players. Any riichi bets stay on the table until somebody wins a hand.
East stays East after a hand if they win, or if they're tenpai at an exhaustive draw. Otherwise the seat rotates and South becomes East. A full game is two rounds, east and south, of at least four hands each, so every player is East in turn.
At the end of the south round, the player with the most points wins. The game is decided by total points, not by how many hands you won. Then uma bonuses are applied:
| Final place | Uma |
|---|---|
| First | Gains 15,000 points |
| Second | Gains 5,000 points |
| Third | Loses 5,000 points |
| Fourth | Loses 15,000 points |
My verdict on learning riichi
I'd learn three things before your first game: the shape of a winning hand, the yaku rule, and furiten. Those are the rules that cause the most I-thought-I'd-won moments. I'd pick two or three easy yaku, such as All Simples and Dragon Triplet, and keep riichi itself as your go-to when your hand is concealed.
I'd skip working out minipoints by hand. The rulebook itself points you to the scoring tables, so keep a copy beside you and let it do the maths until you're playing regularly in a club. If you want to try the tiles on screen first, there's a list of free mahjong games you can play online, and if your table likes tile games, the classic dominoes rules are a gentler way in.
Frequently asked questions
How many tiles are in a riichi mahjong set?
136 tiles: 34 tile types, four of each.
What is a winning hand in Japanese mahjong?
Four sets and a pair, with at least one yaku. Seven Pairs and Thirteen Orphans are also complete hands.
What does riichi mean?
Declaring that your concealed hand is one tile from complete, by discarding a tile sideways and placing a 1,000 point bet.
What do chii, pon and kan mean?
They're calls to claim a discard: chii for a sequence, pon for a triplet and kan for a quad.
How many players play riichi mahjong?
Four, each with a seat wind: East, South, West or North.
