Mahjong tiles explained, and is your set complete?

How many tiles are in a mahjong set?

Every variant starts from the same 34 kinds of tile, four of each: 136 tiles. That is all Japanese riichi uses (EMA Riichi Rules 2025, 1.3). Most sets sold for Chinese and Hong Kong play add eight one-off tiles, the four flowers and four seasons, making 144: the Chinese Official rules (MCR) use all 144, and the Hong Kong Mahjong Association plays with either 136 or 144 depending on whether flowers are used. American mahjong, played from the National Mah Jongg League card, adds eight jokers to make 152.

Reading the tiles

Circles and bamboo are easy: count the circles or sticks. The 1 bamboo is the odd one, usually a bird rather than one stick, and the EMA rulebook notes that its design varies from set to set. Characters show a Chinese numeral above the character 萬 (ten thousand), so it helps to learn the numerals once: 一 1, 二 2, 三 3, 四 4, 五 5, 六 6, 七 7, 八 8, 九 9. The 1s and 9s of each suit are called terminals; 2 to 8 are simples.

The winds are East 東, South 南, West 西 and North 北. At the table the seats run East, South, West, North counter-clockwise, which is not the order of a compass (EMA 2.1). The dragons are red 中, green 發 and white. The white dragon is blank in many sets and framed in blue or black in others; if yours are blank, keep spare blank tiles out of the game so the white dragons stay at four. Winds and dragons together are the honours.

Flowers and seasons are single tiles numbered 1 to 4, and the number matches a seat: 1 is East, 2 South, 3 West and 4 North in the Hong Kong rulebook. The bamboo flower is not the bamboo suit, a point the HKMA rulebook makes explicitly. Riichi leaves flowers, seasons and jokers in the box.

Jokers belong to American sets. The National Mah Jongg League describes American play as using more tiles, notably the joker, and a card of standard hands that changes every year. That card is the League's copyrighted publication, so this site does not reproduce any of its hands; buy the current card from the League. Older and Asian sets often lack jokers, and blank spares can be stickered as jokers (the League sells joker decals in packs of eight).

What else is in the box

• Dice. Riichi needs at least two (EMA 1.4); the Hong Kong rulebook rolls three.
• Point sticks for riichi: 100, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 points; players start with 30,000 (EMA 1.4).
• A wind marker showing the round wind, and in American sets four racks.
• Spare tiles, often blank, kept for replacing a lost tile.

Common mix-ups

• Counting the 1 bamboo as a flower. The bird is part of the bamboo suit; flowers carry a plant and a number.
• Mixing two sets. More than 36 tiles in a suit means tiles from another set have crept in. Check backs and sizes: odd tiles can be recognised face down.
• Treating red fives as extra tiles. They replace normal fives, so a suit with red fives still has 36 tiles.

Ready to play? Start with how to play mahjong. For a riichi game the score calculator does the counting, and for a Hong Kong game the faan calculator. If the same games night has a chess board out, Chess Meadow has tools for that too.