Four Winds Rule Collection – Japanese Modern

5. Scoring

5.1 Displaying the hands

The Japanese rules allow payments to the winner only: there are no payments between the losers. Accordingly, only the winner must display his hand after a deal is over. On the other hand, if the hand ends in a draw and there are players with a calling hand, they must expose their hands in order to get paid for their calling hands.

The winner is responsible of arranging his hand in a way that makes it clear which sets it is composed of, melded sets placed above the sets in the hand. The winner should mark the winning tile by placing it at right angles to the others, and should he wish to claim any score for special ways of going out (e.g., for Out on a one-chance Chow, Out on a pair, etc.), he must show the tile he has drawn from the Wall before adding it to his concealed hand.

If a concealed portion of the hand can be arranged in more than one way, a player is free to arrange it in a way that results in the best scores. E.g., if a player is calling with Bamboo 2-2-3-4 and the winning tile is Bamboo 2 (either self-drawn or discard), a player is free to arrange his hand so that the winning tile is considered to complete the pair of Bamboo 2-2, rather than the Chow 2-3-4 (both arrangements are possible but the previous one pays two extra points).

5.2 Calculating the value of hands

In Japanese modern rules the available scoring units are fu (point units) and han (multipliers, regulated doubles). Instead of a linear doubling scheme, a specific settling table is used to determine the final score of the hand.

5.2.1 Basic points to the winner

The winner receives the following basic points for the completed sets.

Tile set Melded Concealed

Pung of Simples 		2 fu 4 fu

Pung of Terminals 		4 fu 8 fu

Pung of Winds		 4 fu 8 fu

Pung of Dragons		 4 fu 8 fu

Kong of Simples 		8 fu 16 fu

Kong of Terminals 		16 fu 32 fu

Kong of Winds		 16 fu 32 fu

Kong of Dragons		 16 fu 32 fu

Pair of player’s own Wind		 2 fu 2 fu

Pair of Wind of the Round		 2 fu 2 fu

Pair of Dragons		 2 fu 2 fu
5.2.2 Bonus points for the winner

In addition, the winner gets bonus points for the following patterns:

Pattern Score
Winning 20 fu
Concealed hand
Note: As for Kongs, only concealed Kongs are accepted as concealed sets.		 10 fu
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 3Bamboo 4Bamboo 5 Character 6Character 7Character 8 Dot 5Dot 6Dot 7 Dot 1Dot 1
 No-points hand (non-concealed version, i.e., having one or more melded sets before going out ) (Ch. pin fuu, Jap. pin fu)
A hand that does not include any other patterns that score in point units than Winning. (But the hand can contain patterns that earn han units).
Note: In practice requires that the hand consists of four Chows and the winning tile is a discard and used for a multi-chance Chow and that the pair is a non-scoring one.		 10 fu
Self-drawn last tile (ch. tsuu mo ho, jap. tsumo, tsumo ru) 2 fu
Out on a one-chance Chow (a.k.a. Out on a one-way Chow; Ch. kan chan machi, pen chan machi, Jap. kanchan, penchan)
e.g. 1-2 or 8-9 or n-?-n+1 (middle tile missing), as opposed to going out on a Chow that can be completed on both sides.		 2 fu
Out on a pair (ch. tan chao machi, jap. danki) 2 fu
5.2.3 Doubles for the winner

The winner receives bonus mutlipliers for the following basic sets:

Set Score 

Pung of Dragons		 1 han

Kong of Dragons		 1 han

Pung of player’s Own Wind		 1 han

Kong of player’s Own Wind		 1 han

Pung of the Wind of the Round		 1 han

Kong of the Wind of the Round		 1 han

In addition, the winner receives multipliers for the following patterns:

Pattern Score
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Character 2Character 3Character 4 Dot 2Dot 3Dot 4
Same Chow from all suits (Three sisters, Jap. san shoku do jun) 		1 han / 2 han *)
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4
Two identical Chows (Sister Chows, Ch. ton ryan shun, Jap. ippei ko) 		0 han /
1 han *)
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4
Three identical Chows (Ch. tong san shun)
Note: This pattern can be considered as optional.		 0 han / 3 han *)
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4
Four identical Chows (Ch. tong si shun, implies Four same in four Chows) 
Note: This pattern can be considered as optional.		 400% of Limit
Bamboo 1Bamboo 2Bamboo 3 Bamboo 4Bamboo 5Bamboo 6 Bamboo 7Bamboo 8Bamboo 9
3 Chows of 1 suit, step 3  (Clear dragon, Ch. ii chii ton kan, Jap. ikkitsuu kan, itsuu) 		1 han / 2 han *)
Bamboo 4Bamboo 4Bamboo 4 Character 4Character 4Character 4 Dot 4Dot 4Dot 4 
Three triplets of the same number (Brothers Pung, Jap. san shoku dou kou) 		2 han

Three concealed triplets (Jap. san an ko)
 Note: Concealed Kongs are also accepted as concealed triplets (but not other kinds of Kongs).		 2 han
Bamboo 2Bamboo 2Bamboo 2Bamboo 2 Character 7Character 7Character 7Character 7 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon
Three Kongs (Jap. san kan tsu)		 2 han
Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon White DragonWhite DragonWhite Dragon Red DragonRed Dragon
Little Three Dragons (Jap. sho san gen)
 Note: Implies scores for Dragons.		 4 han
Dot 2Dot 2

Fully concealed hand (Ch. men zen tsuu mo, Jap. men zen tsumo)
Going out on a hand that contains only concealed sets. The winning tile must be self-drawn (either from the Wall or Dead Wall).
Note: Accepts concealed Kongs as concealed sets (but not other kinds of Kongs).		 1 han
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 3Bamboo 4Bamboo 5 Character 6Character 7Character 8 Dot 5Dot 6Dot 7 Dot 1Dot 1
 No-points hand (concealed version) (Ch. pin fuu, Jap. pin fu)
A hand that does not include any other patterns that score in point units than Winning and Concealed hand. (But the hand can contain patterns that earn it doubles).
Note: In practice requires that the hand is concealed and consists of four Chows and the winning tile is used for a multi-chance Chow and that the pair is a non-scoring one. The winning tile can be either self-drawn (allowed as an exception, so the bonus for Self-drawn last tile, worth 2 fu, is zeroed) or a discard.		 1 han
Bamboo 2Bamboo 2Bamboo 2 Character 5Character 5Character 5 Dot 2Dot 2Dot 2 Red DragonRed DragonRed Dragon Character 9Character 9
Pung hand (a regular hand with no Chows) (Jap. toi toi ho) 		2 han
Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 3Bamboo 4Bamboo 5 Character 2Character 2Character 2 Dot 7Dot 7Dot 7 Dot 3Dot 3
All Simples (Ch. tan yao chuu, Jap. tan yao) 		1 han
Bamboo 1Bamboo 2Bamboo 3 Dot 7Dot 8Dot 9 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon East WindEast WindEast Wind Character 9Character 9
Terminal or Honor in each set (Jap. chan tao, chan tai yao) 		1 han / 2 han *)
Bamboo 1Bamboo 2Bamboo 3 Bamboo 9Bamboo 9Bamboo 9 Dot 7Dot 8Dot 9 Character 7Character 8Character 9 Dot 1Dot 1
Terminal in each set (Jap. jun chan)		 2 han / 3 han *)
Bamboo 1Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Dot 9Dot 9Dot 9 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon East WindEast WindEast Wind Character 9Character 9
All Terminals and Honors (Ch., Jap. hon rao to)
Note: Does not imply scoring for Pung hand.		 1 han / 3 han *)
Dot 1Dot 2Dot 3 Dot 5Dot 5Dot 5 Dot 7Dot 8Dot 9 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon East WindEast Wind
One suit and Honors (Mixed hand, Ch. hon ii so, Jap. hon itsu) 		2 han / 3 han *)
Dot 1Dot 2Dot 3 Dot 2Dot 3Dot 4 Dot 5Dot 5Dot 5 Dot 7Dot 8Dot 9 Dot 1Dot 1
One suit only (Clear hand, Ch. chin ii so, Jap. chin itsu) 		5 han / 6 han *)

* ) If in a concealed hand

Finally, the winner gets bonus multipliers for the following special ways of going out:

Pattern Score
Out on the last tile of the Wall (Ch. hai tei rao yue, Jap. haite)
Note: Implies Self-drawn last tile.		 1 han
Out on the last discard (no tiles left in the Wall) (Ch. ho tei rao yui, Jap. hote) 1 han
Out on a supplement tile (Ch., Jap. rin shan kai ho) 1 han
Out by robbing a Kong (Ch., Jap. chan kan)
Note: Robbing a Kong is considered going out on a claimed tile (and the player declaring the Kong is considered a discarder). Accordingly, a Kong robber can get extra points for Out on the last discard. 		1 han
Out on 1st turn with a self-drawn tile
 Note: Often it is required that no melds appear on the table at the time of winning.		 400% of Limit
Out on 1st turn with a discarded tile  (Jap. ren ho)
Note: This hand is defined as "going out on a discard before a player has made his first discard", and accordingly the dealer cannot achieve this hand. It is often also required that no melds appear on the table at the time of winning. Some players specify a lower score for this hand (typically 200% of the Limit).		 400% of Limit
Declaration of Ready (jap. rii chi) 1 han
One Out after the Ready declaration (jap. ippatsu). Going out on the turn player declared Ready, before making his next discard, provided that no claims are made between the declarations of Ready and Out. 1 han #)
Ready on first turn  (Jap. daburu rii chi). Going out on a hand that was ready on the first turn of the deal, at the time a player made his first discard. 
Note: Ready declaration is needed.		 1 han
Dora tile 1 han
Ura Dora tile 1 han #)
Kong Dora tile 1 han #)
Kong Ura Dora tile 1 han #)

#) An optional scoring item.

5.2.4 Limit hands

In addition, the winner can get directly the limit points or few extra multipliers for the following special hands (note that % of Limit values are exclusive so no other points are added):

Limit or Special Hand Description Score
All Green (The Imperial Jade) Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4 Bamboo 6Bamboo 6 Bamboo 8Bamboo 8Bamboo 8 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon
Going out with sets composed only of Green Dragons, Bamboo 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 6’s and 8’s. May all be melded.		 400% of Limit
Four Kongs (Fourfold Plenty, 18 Buddhas) Bamboo 3Bamboo 3Bamboo 3Bamboo 3 Character 3Character 3Character 3Character 3 Dot 5Dot 5Dot 5Dot 5 Green DragonGreen DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon
Hand containing any four Kongs, concealed or melded.		 400% of Limit
Hidden Treasure (Buried Treasure)
 Bamboo 1Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Character 3Character 3Character 3 Character 7Character 7Character 7 Dot 3Dot 3Dot 3 Dot 8Dot 8
Four concealed triplets and a pair.
Note: The hand can go out on a discard, if it completes the pair. As for Kongs, only concealed Kongs are accepted as concealed sets. 		400% of Limit
Three Great Scholars
 Red DragonRed DragonRed Dragon White DragonWhite DragonWhite Dragon Green DragonGreen DragonGreen Dragon Character 5Character 6Character 7 Dot 4Dot 4
Pung or Kong with all three Dragons, any Pung or Kong, and any pair. May all be melded.		 400% of Limit
Little Four Winds (Little Four Joys)
 		Bamboo 1Bamboo 2Bamboo 3 East WindEast WindEast Wind South WindSouth WindSouth Wind West WindWest WindWest Wind Notrh WindNotrh Wind
Pung or Kong of three Winds, a pair of the fourth, and any other set completing the hand. May be all melded. 		400% of Limit
Big Four Winds (Big Four Joys, Four Big Blessings) East WindEast WindEast Wind South WindSouth WindSouth Wind West WindWest WindWest Wind Notrh WindNotrh WindNotrh Wind Dot 3Dot 3
Pung or Kong of each Wind, and any pair. May all be melded.		 400% of Limit
All Honors (All Symbols) Red DragonRed DragonRed Dragon White DragonWhite DragonWhite Dragon East WindEast WindEast Wind West WindWest WindWest Wind Notrh WindNotrh Wind
Four Pungs or Kongs and a pair of Dragons and Winds. May all be melded.		 400% of Limit
All Terminals (Heads and Tails) Character 1Character 1Character 1 Character 9Character 9Character 9 Bamboo 1Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Dot 1Dot 1Dot 1 Dot 9Dot 9
Four Pungs or Kongs and a pair of 1’s or 9’s. May all be melded.		 400% of Limit
Nine Gates (Nine United Sons, Nine Sacred Lamps of Lotus) Bamboo 1Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4Bamboo 5Bamboo 6Bamboo 7Bamboo 8Bamboo 9Bamboo 9Bamboo 9 Bamboo 3
Three 1’s, a sequence of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and three 9’s, all of the same suit, and any other tile of the same suit completing the hand. The hand must be concealed (the winning tile can be a discard). No Kongs are allowed in this hand.
Note: This hand is traditionally considered the most perfect hand possible. This is a regular hand which can go out on any of the nine suit tiles.		 400% of Limit
Nine Gates (Impure) Bamboo 1Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Bamboo 2Bamboo 3Bamboo 4Bamboo 4Bamboo 6Bamboo 7Bamboo 8Bamboo 9Bamboo 9Bamboo 9 Bamboo 5
A hand otherwise equal to Nine Gates, but without a possibility of completing the hand with all nine tiles of the suit. (One of the tiles required by Nine Gates is missing from the hand before getting the 14th tile.)		 400% of Limit
Thirteen Orphans (Thirteen Unique Wonders, Thirteen Grades of Imperial Treasure) Bamboo 1Bamboo 9 Character 1Character 9 Dot 1Dot 9 White DragonGreen DragonRed DragonRed Dragon East WindSouth WindWest Wind Notrh Wind  
One of each Dragon and Wind, 1 and 9 of each suit and 14th tile forming a pair with any of these. The hand must be concealed (the winning tile can be a discard).		 400% of Limit
Seven Pairs
(a.k.a Dirty Pairs) 		Bamboo 1Bamboo 1 Bamboo 5Bamboo 5 Character 5Character 5 Dot 7Dot 7 Dot 8Dot 8 Dot 9Dot 9 White DragonWhite Dragon
Hand containing any seven pairs. Identical pairs are not allowed.		 Fixed base points worth 25 fu (all other point units are zeroed) + 2 han
Consecutive Pairs in One Suit Bamboo 2Bamboo 2 Bamboo 3Bamboo 3 Bamboo 4Bamboo 4 Bamboo 5Bamboo 5 Bamboo 6Bamboo 6 Bamboo 7Bamboo 7 Bamboo 8Bamboo 8
Seven pairs in sequence of the same suit (sometimes restricted to numbers from 2 to 8 and called Big Wheels).
Note: This hand can be considered as optional.		 400% of Limit
Heavenly Hand East declares ‘Out’ with the dealt hand. 
Note: In Japanese rules it is often required that the hand is complete right from the start (i.e., if a player declares a concealed Kong and gets the winning tile as a supplement, the hand would no longer qualify for a Heavenly Hand).		 400% of Limit
Earthly Hand Non-dealer goes out on dealer’s first discard.
Note: Some rules do not acknowledge this hand, but allow Out on 1st turn with a discarded tile (which naturally covers also the special situation where the winning tile is discarded by East, but is not so strict, as it allows going out on any player's first discard before a player himself has made a discard). In this case it is normally also required that no melds appear on the board at the time the winning hand is declared.
On the other hand, Earthly hand might be interpreted as Out on 1st turn with a self-drawn tile. 		400% of Limit
5.3 Calculating the total score

When the basic points (fu) and multipliers (han) have been calculated, the total score for the hand can be determined by using a settling table.

E.g., let us assume that the winner is North on the South round and that he goes out on the following hand (claiming the East wind from East):

Character 5Character 5Character 5 Red DragonRed DragonRed DragonRed Dragon

Bamboo 2Bamboo 2Bamboo 2  Dot 1Dot 1Dot 1 East      East

He gets the following basic points:

4 fu Concealed Pung of Simples (Bamboo 2)
8 fu Concealed Pung of Terminals (Dot 1)
2 fu Melded Pung of Simples (Character 5)
16 fu Melded Kong of Dragons (Red Dragons)
20 fu Winning
2 fu Out on a pair (East wind)
52 fu Total points

The basic points are rounded up to nearest ten before applying multipliers, so the total points are 60.

The winner gets the following multipliers for his hand:

1 han Kong of Dragons
1 han Pung hand
960 pts Final score (looked from the settling table, see below)
Figure 3. Generic settling table to determine the final score based on a certain combination of fu and han values. The Limit is set at 2,000 points and the maximum paid for any hand is 400%  of the Limit (8,000 points), paid for hands worth at least 13 han. Note that the 25 fu row is just for the special case a hand consists of seven pairs (all other fu scores are ignored in this special situation).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13– han
20 fu 160 320 640 1280 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
25 fu 200 400 800 1600 100% 100% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
30 fu 240 480 960 1920 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
40 fu 320 640 1280 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
50 fu 400 800 1600 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
60 fu 480 960 1920 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
70 fu 560 1120 100% 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
80 fu 640 1280 100% 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
90 fu 720 1440 100% 100% 100% 150% 150% 200% 200% 200% 300% 300% 400%
5.4 Limit

In games where the final score is specified using a settling table, the limit is used as a unit to specify the final scores. In modern Japanese rules the Limit is 2,000 points, but the actual highest final score is specified by a settling table according to which a hand worth 13 han or more pays 400% of the Limit (meaning the Limit doubled twice), i.e. 8,000 points. Individual hands can bypass this value and specify scoring values even higher than this (e.g. 1600% of Limit).

It is important to understand that in this scoring system the Limit is not used as a point cutter but simply as a scoring unit.

5.5 Scoring accessories

A sheet of paper and a pencil is sufficient for keeping the scores, but normally Mah Jong sets come with counters or chips, valued at 500 points (marked either with 6 red and 6 black dots or more commonly, with 5 red dots), 100 points (marked either with 2 red dots, or more commonly with 1 red dot), 10 points (marked either with 8 black dots or more commonly, with 10 black dots) and 2 points (marked either with 1 red and 3 black dots or more commonly, with 2 black dots). If scoring accessories are used, players naturally exchange them at the time of payments.

Related topics:
Introduction
Tiles
Preliminaries
Playing
Miscellaneous
Payments