Japanese Classical Overview
Japanese Classical: Overview Gameplay Scoring Penalties & Errors Resources
Japanese Classical
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Length 4 rounds
Tiles Used
Wall 136 tiles
Hand 13 tiles
Dead Wall 14 tiles
Scoring
System Point and Double
Unit Point
Minimum 0
Maximum 500
Payout Winner only

Japanese Classical mahjong follows closely Chinese Classical rules, using a point and doubles system for scoring. Japanese classical mahjong has distinct gameplay elements namely riichi and sacred discards.

Preliminaries

Equipment

Bams Cracks Dots Winds Dragons Flowers Seasons Jokers Red tiles
Tiles used 15px-Yes_check.svg.png 15px-Yes_check.svg.png 15px-Yes_check.svg.png 15px-Yes_check.svg.png 15px-Yes_check.svg.png 15px-X_mark.svg.png 15px-X_mark.svg.png 15px-X_mark.svg.png 15px-X_mark.svg.png
  • 136 Tiles (Suit and honor tiles)
  • Scoring sticks

Terminology

Chi
A sequence of three tiles.
Pon
Three of a kind.
Kan
Four of a kind.
Ron
Winning with an opponent's discard.
Tsumo
Winning with a self-drawn tile.

Seating

For casual play any seating arrangement will do.

Main Article: Seating

Before the tiles are shuffled and the wall is built, each player sits down arbitrarily at the table. Set aside one of each wind tile, an even, and an odd numbered tile. Shuffle the wind tiles face down and arranged them sandwiched in between the odd and even tile as seen below.

Example

b1.gif z1.gif z1.gif z1.gif z1.gif b2.gif
Random wind tiles face down

Any arbitrary player rolls two dice and counts off, starting with him/herself as one, the next player as two, etc. continuing counterclockwise. The indicated player, then rolls the dice once more noting both the total and if the total is an even or odd number. This will determine who draws first and from which side. Again, he/she counts off starting with him/herself.

b1.gif w2.gif w4.gif w1.gif w3.gif b2.gif
Wind tiles face up for illustration purposes.

If the number is odd, for example, the indicated player draws the face down wind tile closest to the odd-numbered tile (in this case South). The next player in turn draws the next wind tile (North), and so on (East and last West). The wind tile drawn is your seat wind. The player who is east remains stationary while the other players arranges themselves accordingly. Shuffle up all of tiles and build the wall.

seating.gif
Playing order: East, South, West, North

Winds

See Main Article: Seat and Prevalent Winds

Seat winds are winds assigned to each player prior to the start of the game. The player who is in the East position is the dealer. Following counterclockwise, is South, West and North.

hand1.png
The player sitting at the star is East in the first hand

If the deal passes when the hand is over the player’s wind change. The player who was originally East position is now North, the player starting as South is now East, etc. In other words, the winds rotate counterclockwise.

hand2.png
The player sitting at the star is now South

When the player who was originally East becomes East again (deals again) a new round begins.

Each round is assigned a wind, known as the prevalent wind or round wind. After each round the prevalent wind changes. For the first round the prevalent wind is East, for the second South, third West, and fourth North. A marker or indicator is commonly used to keep track of the round.

Dealing

Tiles are then dealt accordingly to each player. The wall will be 17 tiles in length. The last 14 tiles of the wall are not used. These tiles are constantly replenished after replacement for a kan is drawn.

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