Understanding Mahjong Tiles

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Mahjong tiles differ in design, size, and count. Some have 136 tiles, most commonly 144. American and Japanese sets have more tiles though. The tiles were organized by category or group. These categories were known as the Suits, Honors, and Bonus tiles. Some even have Joker tiles. This article will help you understand each mahjong tile.

The first group in the mahjong tiles would be the Suits or Suited tiles. This group is consisting of Circles, Bamboos, and Characters. The majority of the tiles belong to this group. There are three (3) money based suits of tiles numbered from 1 to 9 which stand as its ranking. There are 108 suited tiles in a mahjong set.

Next would be the Honors or Honour tiles. Honor tiles don’t have any rank. This group of tiles includes the wind tiles and the dragon tiles. The wind tiles have four (4) types. Each type was symbolized by the Chinese wind direction. There are 16 wind tiles in total. Dragon tiles have three (3) types. These tiles were designed with simplified Chinese characters. For the red, it’s designed with a red traditional Chinese character or red dragon. The green was designed with a green traditional character. Before, white dragon is just a simple blank tile however revised with a blue border to distinguish them from the replacement tiles. A mahjong set has 12 dragon tiles. A total of 28 honor tiles in a set.

Lastly, is the Bonus tiles that include the four (4) flowers tiles, four (4) season tiles, and some blank sets use to replace lost tiles. The Flower tiles usually contain flowers pictures in different colors. In some version, non-floral designs were being used. The second group would be the Season tiles. This set of tiles were designed with pictures that resembles the four seasons, namely Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. In Singapore, they have another group which was designed with animal pictures or other artistic images. In American mahjong, 8 joker tiles were added used to replace in any tiles in putting together. These are tiles that simply says “joker” in a diagonal pattern. Four (4) joker tiles were also being used in Shanghai style mahjong.

Playing mahjong would be easier if each tile was understood. Like other games, it won’t as enjoyable to play if there are unanswered questions about it. Learn its meaning and the game shall be easy. You need to learn how to play mahjong.

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  1. Pingback by Mixture of Madness Brain Trust » Introducing the American Mahjong Sets

    [...] Other articles of interest include topics: Mahjong tiles. [...]

    on October 3, 2011 at 2:29 pm