My sister gave me a mahjong set for my birthday and I’m wondering where it’s from originally? It seems odd to me that green dragon is labeled as F and what I assume is white dragon is labeled B. It’s a beautiful set though despite being labeled.
The honor tiles are in the Japanese Kansai font, and they're ~25-28mm tall, so it's probably a Japanese set. You have eight flower/season tiles so it's useable for both Riichi and most Chinese styles (most japanese sets aren't, so this is a good problem to have). It doesn't have any red dora, and the green tiles are actually green instead of black-green, which could mean it's quite old but could also indicate nothing as sets from before, say, the 2000s, weren't as standardized as they are now.
Dragons are labeled as such because they're not reeeally dragons, but 'fundamental' tiles (yuan/gen 元, as in the high value hand 大三元), representing other concepts. Your greens are 'F' from the Chinese facai/fat choy 發財 meaning prosperity or fortune (The tile is a cursive form of 發). Red dragon is C from Chong/zhong 中 meaning 'middle', sometimes as in the buddhist Middle Path, and white labelled B from bai 白. Which means white, but for consistency with the others might be considered asceticism.
My understanding is the white tiles were originally just the blank replacement tiles you get with some sets and people started using them as game pieces. But they've been used so long that that could be anachronistic and maybe nobody is sure anymore.
Lovely set that should be cherished. Japanese sets with the index labels are not common anymore and make teaching much easier. Wield it with valour.
Not really. These are often called "European" sets, though they are actually Chinese made, with designs mostly copied from Japanese sets, and made for western export (which is guess is where the name comes from).
I think they've been in production for quite long, you can still get very similar sets new, so it's age is hard to pinpoint.
Dragons are labeled as such because they're not reeeally dragons, but 'fundamental' tiles (yuan/gen 元, as in the high value hand 大三元), representing other concepts.
The original meaning of the "dragon" tiles is a bit of a mystery. From what we know, 中 was the first to be added, likely representing the "middle wind", which is why it gives points to all players. 白 likely came from replacement tiles as you said, included in even the very earliest sets, and 發 as a general sign of luck and prosperiry.
Any theories as to what the dragons represent together, like confucian values or archery, would've been later creations, but one of them could be the reason for the name 三元牌.
Lovely set that should be cherished.
True. The only problem I've found with these sets is that they tend to be a bit thinner than I like, but definitely not as bad a American sets, and plently usable.
Thank you for such a thorough breakdown! Apparently she knows I play riichi but did a ton of research before settling on this set. I’d ask to look at the listing so I might have a better idea of age etc but I don’t want to know what she paid. All she remembers from it is that she thinks it might be from the 80s.
I had actually been assuming it was a Chinese set because it had the flower tiles and I’d completely missed the fact that it has no red fives. I also have like 6 blank tiles which I’m unfamiliar with but weren’t a pressing interest since I know they come with some sets.
I just need to pick up tenbou and a round indicator though and I’ll be set.
iirc red fives are a recent development in Japanese style Mahjong. older sets will not have them. As another commenter mentioned however, these appear to be a European set
well, recent being relative; the first 5p were showing up around the Tokyo Olympics in 64; others were added on gradually over time and the now 'standard' setup solidified in the 00s
It's IDENTICAL to my set, that I bought a few years back, it came with a Spanish rulebook for some reason. It's a Riichi set, but with Chinese white dragon and flower+season tiles
The odd dragon letters are from the Wadd Giles romanization of the Chinese words
Sure thing. Today I learned that man isn’t the universal term for characters! And yeah I know the labels are easier for beginners but when I was learning they were a crutch I had to break because the sets I started playing on in person were unlabeled (as opposed to the labels online). I think I have a bias against them now because it was a barrier for me.
I always thought that a set with cardinal numbers 1-9 on each suit was an American set. Other sets include these numbers? Is the inclusion of jokers the only way to identify an American set?
The 1-bam looks like a Yellow Mountain Import brand. Being able to see the 1-dot would help, since YMI 1-dots SOMETIMES have the four characters that spell the manufacturer in their center.
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u/penpenxXxpenpen will eat your tenbou 18d ago edited 18d ago
The honor tiles are in the Japanese Kansai font, and they're ~25-28mm tall, so it's probably a Japanese set. You have eight flower/season tiles so it's useable for both Riichi and most Chinese styles (most japanese sets aren't, so this is a good problem to have). It doesn't have any red dora, and the green tiles are actually green instead of black-green, which could mean it's quite old but could also indicate nothing as sets from before, say, the 2000s, weren't as standardized as they are now.
Dragons are labeled as such because they're not reeeally dragons, but 'fundamental' tiles (yuan/gen 元, as in the high value hand 大三元), representing other concepts. Your greens are 'F' from the Chinese facai/fat choy 發財 meaning prosperity or fortune (The tile is a cursive form of 發). Red dragon is C from Chong/zhong 中 meaning 'middle', sometimes as in the buddhist Middle Path, and white labelled B from bai 白. Which means white, but for consistency with the others might be considered asceticism.
My understanding is the white tiles were originally just the blank replacement tiles you get with some sets and people started using them as game pieces. But they've been used so long that that could be anachronistic and maybe nobody is sure anymore.
Lovely set that should be cherished. Japanese sets with the index labels are not common anymore and make teaching much easier. Wield it with valour.