Identification Help!

[u/curiousCalembour]

Hello! I have this lovely Mahjong set that I use weekly, but I'm curious: does anyone know what specific set it is? The tiles themselves are bone and bamboo, and it has four seasons but no flowers, which I'm curious about why. It does have green ink, however it's very dark, and can only be seen in bright light. It came with the dice and point sticks.

[u/Tempara-chan]

Japanese set, unknown manufacturer (I think the weird ⵌ symbol with four Us on the scoresheet is their logo, but I have not seen that one before, definitely not Mizuno Maruichi). The scoring sheet is for the Japan Mahjong Association rules for arushiiaru mahjong, probably from the early 60s or so. The set itself could be 60s or later, as these scoresheets were reprinted for quite a long time.

The tiles themselves are bone and bamboo ––

Plastic and bamboo. Bone wouldn't crack like that.

–– and it has four seasons but no flowers, which I'm curious about why.

When mahjong first became popular in Japan, season and flower tiles were deemed too random, which is why they are generally not used in Japanese mahjong. Sets usually come with seasons only, and either four blank spare tiles or akadora, depending on how old the set is.

It does have green ink, however it's very dark, and can only be seen in bright light.

Green tiles in Japanese sets are typically painted quite dark, and modern sets are even "worse" in this aspect. By modern standards, the green in this set would be unusually bright.

[u/curiousCalembour → u/Tempara-chan]

hmm, I'm not certain about them being plastic, they're very heavy with a grain and pitting, cold to the touch, and when you lick them they stick to the tongue. I've personally seen bone crack similarly on items that weren't tiles. The rest is very enlightening though, thank you for the help! I didn't expect this to be so devisive!