Riichi Mahjong is Japanese Mahjong — the variant dominant in Japan, widely played competitively worldwide, and the version you will find on most international Mahjong platforms. It shares the same 136-tile set and basic structure as Hong Kong Mahjong, but diverges in three critical ways: hands must have at least one scoring pattern (yaku), players can make the Riichi declaration, and Dora tiles add bonus scoring.
This guide covers the full Riichi Mahjong rules from scratch.
How Riichi Differs from Hong Kong Mahjong
If you already know Hong Kong Mahjong, here is the summary of what changes:
| Element | Hong Kong Mahjong | Riichi Mahjong |
|---|---|---|
| Flower/Season tiles | 8 included | None (136 tiles total) |
| Winning requirement | Any legal hand | Must have at least one yaku |
| Special declaration | None | Riichi (bet when in tenpai) |
| Bonus tiles | None | Dora tiles (revealed from dead wall) |
| Furiten rule | No | Yes — you cannot win on discards you passed |
| Chow claims | Next player only | Next player only (same rule) |
| Who pays on discard | Discarder only | Discarder only |
| Points system | Faan + payment | Han/Fu + points pool |
The Tile Set
Riichi Mahjong uses 136 tiles — the standard 108 suit tiles (Bamboo, Characters, Circles) plus 16 wind tiles and 12 dragon tiles. Flower and Season bonus tiles are not used.
Setup and Dealing
Four players, same counter-clockwise play direction as HK Mahjong. Each player builds a wall section of 17 stacks (34 tiles, two high). The dealer (East) breaks the wall using dice.
Dead wall: The last 14 tiles at the break point are reserved as the dead wall. One tile from the dead wall is immediately flipped to reveal the Dora indicator (more on Dora below).
Dealing: The dealer draws 14 tiles; all others draw 13. Same as Hong Kong Mahjong.
Turns and Discards
Turn structure is the same as Hong Kong Mahjong: draw one tile, assess, discard one tile. Play moves counter-clockwise.
Claim types and priority work identically:
- Mahjong — any player, highest priority
- Pung/Kong — any player
- Chow — next player only
The critical difference comes in the winning requirement: completing a four-sets-one-pair hand is necessary but not sufficient to win. Your hand must also contain at least one yaku.
Yaku: The Core of Riichi Strategy
A yaku (役) is a scoring pattern that validates a winning hand. There are dozens of yaku; here are the most important ones for beginners:
Always-Available Yaku
Riichi (立直) — 1 han
Declare Riichi when in tenpai (hand one tile from complete) with a concealed hand. Pay 1000 points as a bet. Your hand locks — you cannot change direction. Draw and discard until you win or the hand ends. Riichi is both a declaration and a yaku: it makes many otherwise invalid hands winnable.
Tsumo (門前清自摸和) — 1 han
Win by self-draw with a concealed hand. Any concealed hand that wins by drawing from the wall earns this yaku.
Tanyao (断么九) — 1 han
A hand composed entirely of simples (tiles numbered 2–8 only). No terminals (1s or 9s), no honour tiles. Open or concealed.
Pinfu (平和) — 1 han (concealed only)
A hand of four chows and a pair, where the pair is not the seat wind, round wind, or any dragon, and the final tile completes an open wait (not a single-sided or tanki wait). Purely structural — no pungs allowed.
Iipeiko (一盃口) — 1 han (concealed only)
Two identical chows in the same suit (e.g., two copies of 3-4-5 Bamboo). Concealed only.
Honour-Based Yaku
Yakuhai / Koutsu (役牌) — 1 han per
A pung of dragons, your seat wind, or the round wind. Easy to build toward and always valid. Equivalent to the honour pung bonuses in HK Mahjong.
One-Suit Yaku
Honitsu / Half Flush (混一色) — 2 han concealed / 1 han open
A hand built in one suit plus honour tiles. Equivalent to Mixed Flush in HK Mahjong.
Chinitsu / Full Flush (清一色) — 6 han concealed / 5 han open
A hand built entirely in one suit. Equivalent to Pure Flush in HK Mahjong. High-value.
Special Structure Yaku
Chiitoi (七対子) — 2 han
Seven pairs. No set can repeat (cannot use the same two tiles as two different pairs). A fixed 25 fu. Concealed only.
Toitoi (対々和) — 2 han
All four sets are pungs (no chows). Open or concealed.
San Ankou (三暗刻) — 2 han
Three concealed pungs in the hand (the fourth set can be anything). Self-drawn or dealt — not claimed from discards.
Rare / Limit Yaku
Kokushi Musou / Thirteen Orphans (国士無双) — Yakuman
One each of all 13 terminals and honours (1-Bam, 9-Bam, 1-Wan, 9-Wan, 1-Dot, 9-Dot, East, South, West, North, Red Dragon, Green Dragon, White Dragon) plus a duplicate of any one. Concealed only.
Suuankou (四暗刻) — Yakuman
Four concealed pungs (and a pair). Must be won by self-draw.
Tenhou (天和) — Yakuman
The dealer wins on their initial 14-tile hand.
Yakuman is the maximum scoring category — equivalent to a limit hand in HK Mahjong.
The Riichi Declaration
When your hand is in tenpai (one tile away from winning) and fully concealed, you may declare Riichi:
- Announce “Riichi”
- Pay 1000 points from your stack to the table (the Riichi bet)
- Rotate your next discard sideways to mark the declaration
- Your hand is now locked — you draw and discard without changing direction
What changes after Riichi:
- You may not change your hand (cannot swap tiles to chase a different target)
- If you draw a tile that would complete a different valid hand, you must discard it without winning on it (unless you want to win on that tile — then you can)
- You may declare a concealed kong if the drawn tile does not change your winning tile(s)
- Ura Dora is revealed if you win after declaring Riichi — additional hidden bonus tiles
Why declare Riichi:
- It makes any tenpai hand legal (since Riichi itself is a yaku)
- It applies pressure to opponents — they know you are ready to win
- Riichi bet + potential Ura Dora add significant value to a win
- You collect any other Riichi bets on the table if you win
Dora: Bonus Scoring Tiles
At the start of each hand, one tile from the dead wall is turned face-up. The tile one step above that tile in the following sequences is the Dora for this hand:
- Suits: 1→2→3→4→5→6→7→8→9→1 (cyclical)
- Winds: East→South→West→North→East (cyclical)
- Dragons: White→Green→Red→White (cyclical)
Example: If the revealed indicator is 6-Bamboo, then 7-Bamboo is Dora. Each 7-Bamboo tile in a winning hand adds 1 han to the score.
Additional Dora: Each time a kong is declared, an additional dead wall tile is revealed, adding another Dora to the hand.
Ura Dora: After a Riichi win, additional indicator tiles beneath the existing indicator(s) are revealed. These count as bonus Dora only for the Riichi winner.
Aka Dora (Red Fives): In many rule sets, one or more of the 5-tiles in each suit is replaced with a red version that always counts as Dora, regardless of the indicator.
Dora tiles add han but are not yaku — they cannot make an otherwise invalid hand legal.
Furiten: The Defensive Rule
Furiten (振聴) is one of Riichi Mahjong’s most important rules and has no equivalent in Hong Kong Mahjong.
Temporary Furiten: If a tile that would complete your hand appears in any discard pool and you do not claim it, you are in temporary Furiten. You cannot win on a discard until your next draw (after which Furiten resets if you discard safely).
Riichi Furiten: If you are in Riichi and a winning tile passes, you remain in Furiten for the rest of the hand. You can still win by self-draw.
Permanent Furiten: If your own discard pool contains any of your winning tiles, you are in permanent Furiten for the rest of the hand. You can only win by self-draw.
Why this matters strategically: Furiten forces players to commit to their winning tiles. If you are waiting on multiple tile types and pass on one to avoid being read, you must discard safely or you can never win on a discard. This creates interesting decisions between claiming information and maintaining flexibility.
Scoring Overview
Riichi Mahjong uses han (翻) and fu (符) to calculate scores.
Han comes from yaku values and Dora tiles. More han = more points.
Fu is a structural value based on the types of sets in your hand, your winning tile, and how you won. Most players use a lookup table rather than calculating fu manually.
The han/fu combination maps to a specific point value via the scoring table. Common milestones:
| Han Total | Common Description |
|---|---|
| 1 han | Mangan threshold is 5 han / 30 fu or 4 han / 30 fu+ |
| 5 han | Mangan — 8,000 pts (dealer) / 12,000 pts (dealer self-draw) |
| 6–7 han | Haneman — 1.5× Mangan |
| 8–10 han | Baiman — 2× Mangan |
| 11–12 han | Hanbaiman — 3× Mangan |
| 13+ han | Sanbaiman — 4× Mangan |
| Yakuman | Maximum — 32,000 pts (dealer) / 48,000 pts (dealer self-draw) |
Game end: A standard game (East + South rounds) ends when hands are exhausted. The player with the most points wins. If any player drops below 0 points, the game may end immediately.
Key Strategic Differences from HK Mahjong
You must plan for yaku from the start. Before building a hand, know which yaku you are targeting. A beautifully structured hand with no yaku cannot win.
Riichi is often the correct play even with a weak hand. If you are in tenpai with a concealed hand, declaring Riichi is often correct even if your hand has poor yaku — Riichi itself plus Ura Dora can dramatically increase the hand’s value.
Furiten makes defensive play critical. Passing on your winning tile puts you in Furiten. Knowing when to pass on a winning claim to preserve safety is a core skill.
Dora awareness shapes hand selection. If 7-Bamboo is Dora this hand, any hand heavy in Bamboo near 7 becomes more valuable. Experienced players factor Dora into their hand-building decisions from the first discard.
Want to try real Mahjong online? Mahjo currently supports Hong Kong-style Mahjong — a great foundation before tackling Riichi’s additional rules. Or read our types of Mahjong guide for a comparison of all major variants.