Mahjong Tiles

Suits, honors, flowers and jokers: meet every mahjong tile, and find out how many come in a set.

Whatever kind of mahjong you play, the tiles come from the same few families: three numbered suits, the honor tiles, and in some places flowers or jokers on top. Each page below covers one family, so a full set will never look scary again.

If you are brand new, start with Academy lesson 1 and come back here for the details. Ready to sit down and play? Head back to the homepage and pick a style.

The Suits: Characters, Dots and BambooThree suits, numbered 1 to 9. How to read them and what they are called in different places.Honor Tiles: Winds and DragonsEast, South, West, North plus red, green and white: the seven honor tiles, how to read them and why you can't chow them.Flower Tiles: Seasons and PlantsWhat the 8 flower tiles look like, how replacement draws work, and which styles use flowers.Jokers and Wild TilesHow wild tiles work: American joker rules, joker swaps, and styles that choose a wild tile by turning one over.How Many Tiles in a Mahjong Set?What's in a 108, 136, 144 or 152-tile set? One table covers every style's tile count and hand size.What Are Mahjong Tiles Made Of?Bone, bamboo, ivory, Bakelite, acrylic: how mahjong tiles changed, how big they are, and how automatic tables work.Mahjong Tiles in UnicodeThe 44 mahjong characters starting at U+1F000, in a full table you can copy from.