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The 34 tiles
Riichi mahjong uses 34 different tiles: three suits numbered 1 to 9 (man, pin, sou) plus seven honors, and every tile comes in four copies.
The principle
The game has three numbered suits. The man (manzu, 萬) show characters, the pin (pinzu, 筒) show circles, and the sou (souzu, 索) show bamboo. Each suit runs from 1 to 9, which gives twenty-seven distinct numbered tiles.
Rule and example
Next come the honors, which carry no number. The four winds are East (東), South (南), West (西) and North (北). The three dragons are white (白, haku), green (發, hatsu) and red (中, chun). These seven honors added to the twenty-seven numbers make 34 different tiles.
What changes
Each of these 34 tiles exists in four copies, which brings the full wall to 136 tiles. In standard notation you write the numbers 1m to 9m, 1p to 9p, 1s to 9s, and the honors 1z to 7z (winds first, then dragons).
Mistake to avoid
This split shapes the whole strategy. The 1s and 9s (terminals) and the honors form the yaochuu, which enable certain yaku, while the 2 to 8 tiles (simples) let you build tanyao. Knowing all 34 tiles is the prerequisite for reading a hand, counting ukeire and spotting dora.
Rules references
- Tenhou rulesReference profile used for game mechanics and scoring.
- WRC Rules 2025International rules compared whenever their options differ from Tenhou.