Counting Han
Han is the integer on a riichi win. It decides whether the hand may be declared, and it sets the band the score sits in before fu turns that band into a payment. One yaku is the floor. Further yaku add their own han. A yakuman replaces the sum. Dora, a red five, and ura dora add han only after that floor is already met, and none of them is a yaku.
This page is the count. Scoring Basics turns han and fu into a payment. Fu Calculation Basics is the fu count. The Score Table is the grid, including every limit row. The yaku guide is the pattern list. Riichi Mahjong is the rules frame around them. Yaku training asks you to name the patterns. Score training gives those patterns and the seat, then asks for fu, han, and the payment, with dora left out.
The hands below are closed. When a wind matters, the round is East and the seat is South, so the winner is a non-dealer and East is the round wind. South is the seat wind. West and North are guest winds. No caption hides a dora indicator inside the han.
At least one yaku
A finished shape is four melds and one pair, or seven pairs, or one of the yakuman shapes. The shape is not the yaku. A hand can be tenpai, with a named wait and a real fu total, and a ron still pays nothing until a yaku exists. Fu does not open that floor. Forty fu with no yaku is still a miss.
Two situational yaku can be the whole floor on a closed hand. A riichi declaration is 1 han, and it has to be made while the hand is closed and already in tenpai. Menzen tsumo, a closed self-draw, is also 1 han. Either one is enough when the tiles themselves have no pattern yaku. A call removes both. Haitei, houtei, chankan, and rinshan can each be that single han as well. Ippatsu adds 1 han on top of a riichi. The conditions are on the rules page.
Shanten 0. Waits 6 sou ×4: 1 kind, 4 tiles. Sequences of 456 man, 789 man, and 234 pin, pair of 9 sou, and 57 sou. The wait is a closed wait in the middle of 57. The 9 is a terminal, so tanyao is absent. The wait is not two-sided, so pinfu is absent. No other pattern yaku is in the tiles. A ron on 6 sou does not pay.
The shape is one tile from four sequences and a pair. That is tenpai. It is not a win. Menzen tsumo on 6 sou would supply the missing han by itself. A riichi declared on this tenpai would make a later ron legal, and that ron would still be the kanchan hand plus the riichi han. The wait contributes fu, which the fu page counts, and the wait does not contribute the yaku. Wait Types names the kanchan.
Shanten 0. Waits 3 pin ×4 and 6 pin ×4: 2 kinds, 8 tiles. Concealed triplets of 1 man and 3 man, sequence 789 sou, pair of white, and 45 pin. Both tiles finish a two-sided wait. White is a pair, so it is not yakuhai. Two triplets are not sanankou, and the sequence keeps the hand out of toitoi. A ron on either pin does not pay.
Yakuhai is a triplet or a quad of a dragon, of the round wind, or of the seat wind. A dragon pair is 2 fu. It also blocks pinfu. It is still 0 han. The two-sided wait would have been the wait pinfu wants. The triplets and the white pair are why pinfu fails. The yakuhai test is the triplet.
Yaku add, and a yakuman replaces the sum
Pattern yaku add. Tanyao plus pinfu is 2 han, and the sum is not a new yaku with its own name. Situational han adds in the same way, after the patterns. A yakuman does not sit on top of that list. Kokushi, suuankou, and the other yakuman limits are paid as limit hands. The directory yaku, riichi, and dora are not stacked onto them. The point value of the limit is on the Score Table and in Riichi Mahjong.
Closed and open change some of the numbers. On this site tanyao is 1 han open or closed. Pinfu, iipeikou, chiitoitsu, and ryanpeikou exist only while the hand stays closed. Yakuhai and toitoi keep their han after a call. Sanshoku, ittsu, and chanta are 2 han closed and 1 han open. Honitsu is 3 han closed and 2 han open. Chinitsu, one suit and no honors, is 6 han closed and 5 han open. Sanankou stays 2 han for as long as three triplets are concealed. A called triplet is not concealed. A triplet completed by ron is not concealed either.
| Yaku | Closed | Open |
|---|---|---|
| Tanyao | 1 | 1 |
| Pinfu | 1 | removed |
| Iipeikou | 1 | removed |
| Yakuhai, each triplet | 1 | 1 |
| Sanshoku | 2 | 1 |
| Ittsu | 2 | 1 |
| Chiitoitsu | 2 | removed |
| Ryanpeikou | 3 | removed |
| Toitoi | 2 | 2 |
| Chanta | 2 | 1 |
| Sanankou | 2 | 2, while three triplets stay concealed |
| Honitsu | 3 | 2 |
Shanten 0. Shanpon on white ×2 and green ×2: 2 kinds, 4 tiles. Concealed triplets of 1 man, 2 pin, and 3 sou are already set. Either dragon completes the fourth triplet and leaves the other dragon as the pair. A ron is toitoi, sanankou, and one yakuhai.
Count the ron as addition. Toitoi is 2 han. Sanankou is 2 han, because the three number triplets were concealed before the winning tile arrived. The dragon you complete is yakuhai for 1 han. The dragon that stays a pair is not a second yakuhai. The sum is 5 han. Five han is a mangan from the han alone, which is the threshold in the section near the end of this page. The payment itself is on the score table.
A tsumo of the same shanpon is a different score, and it is not 5 han plus a self-draw. All four triplets would be concealed, which is suuankou, a yakuman. The yakuman replaces toitoi, sanankou, and the dragon. Those three names are how you recognize the tiles. They are not extra han on top of the limit. A shanpon suuankou has to be a tsumo. The ron form above stays at 5 han because the triplet the discard completed is not concealed.
Dora, ura dora, and red fives
Dora is extra han from the indicator tiles. It is counted only after at least one yaku is already there. A hand with three dora and no yaku is still refused on a ron. Score training stops before dora, so the han you enter in that drill is the yaku han, plus a situational han when the question gives you one. The drill does not ask you to hunt the dead wall.
Complete. Shanten −1. Sequences of 234 man, 567 man, 456 pin, and 678 sou, pair of 8 sou. Every tile is 2 through 8, so tanyao is 1 han. That han is the tile set. No dora is inside it.
The picture does not mark which tile arrived, so pinfu stays off the locked claim. Pinfu needs a two-sided wait, and this fourteen only shows the groups. The locked yaku is tanyao. If one of these tiles were dora, the han would rise by the number of dora tiles in the hand, and tanyao would still be the reason the win is legal. Score training on a hand like this asks for the 1 han from the pattern.
The table flips one dora indicator from the dead wall at the start. The dora is the next tile in sequence after the indicator. A 1 indicator makes 2 the dora. A 9 indicator wraps to 1 of the same suit. Winds step East, South, West, North, then back to East. Dragons step white, green, red, then back to white. Each dora tile in the winning hand is 1 han. A kan reveals another indicator, and those kan dora add in the same way.
A red five is a five that has been printed red, one five in each suit at tables that play them. It still behaves as a 5 inside a sequence, inside tanyao, and inside every other pattern test. Holding the red tile adds 1 han of dora. It does not create a yaku, and it does not remove tanyao.
Ura dora exists only after a win that includes riichi. The tile under each dora indicator is turned up, and the next tile after that ura indicator is ura dora, again 1 han per tile. A hand that never declared riichi does not score ura. Ura still cannot legalize a no-yaku shape. Riichi itself was the yaku, and ura is more han on a win that is already allowed.
Honba and riichi sticks move the payment and do not move the han. Scoring Basics is where those two are added, after the core payment. They are outside score training, in the same way dora is.
One-han yaku, and the first stacks
The four 1-han pattern yaku in the training set are tanyao, pinfu, iipeikou, and yakuhai. They are the ones to add in your head until the sum is automatic. A second copy of the same dragon is another 1. A second copy of tanyao does not exist.
Shanten 0. Waits 4 sou ×3 and 7 sou ×3: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Sequences of 345 man, 678 man, and 234 pin are set. Sou 4567 is a finished sequence plus a single, and the single is the pair wait. Winning on 4 sou makes 567 sou and a pair of 4 sou. Winning on 7 sou makes 456 sou and a pair of 7 sou. Every tile is 2 through 8. Tanyao, 1 han. Both waits are pair waits, so pinfu is absent.
The groups look like a quiet sequence hand, which is why pinfu gets added by habit. Pinfu needs the winning tile to complete a sequence on a two-sided wait. Here the winning tile completes the pair, and the fourth sequence was already on the table. Tanyao stands. Pinfu does not. One pattern yaku is enough to declare, and the han is 1 on either tile.
Shanten 0. Waits 5 sou ×4 and 8 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Sequences of 234 man, 567 man, and 345 pin, with 67 sou and a pair of 8 sou. Both tiles finish that two-sided wait. The pair of 8 sou is not a value pair. Tanyao and pinfu, 2 han.
Two copies of 8 sou are already the pair, so that side has 2 tiles left. No 5 sou is in the hand, so that side has 4. The copy split is the wait width. It does not change the han. A closed pinfu ron is 30 fu. The payment for 2 han at 30 fu is worked on the scoring page, for a non-dealer and for the dealer. The han lesson is the addition: 1 plus 1.
Shanten 0. Waits 5 man ×4 and 8 man ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Sequences of 234 pin, 567 pin, and 345 sou, with 67 man and a pair of 8 man. Both tiles are two-sided. Tanyao and pinfu again, 2 han.
The man tiles and the sou tiles have traded jobs with the hand above. The yaku list did not change. A two-sided all-simples hand is this stack so often that it is worth seeing twice. The pair is still a simple, the wait is still two-sided, and the hand is still closed. Move any one of those and the second han disappears while tanyao can remain.
Shanten 0. Waits 6 sou ×4 and 9 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Man 112233 is 123 twice, which is iipeikou. Pin 456 is the third sequence. Sou is 78 beside a pair of 9 sou. Both tiles finish that two-sided wait, including the 9, which completes 789 and leaves the pair in place. The pair is not a value pair. Iipeikou and pinfu, 2 han.
One man blocks tanyao. The 9 sou matches the pair, and the group it completes is still the sequence. A pair-wait label on that 9 would delete pinfu and leave iipeikou alone at 1 han. The tiles support the sequence reading, so the higher han is the one that scores, and both waits stay at 2. Iipeikou is 1 han, closed only. The same sequence in two different suits is not this yaku.
Shanten 0. Waits 5 sou ×4 and 8 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Man 223344 is 234 twice. Pin 567 is one sequence. Sou is 67 beside a pair of 8 sou. Both tiles are two-sided, and every tile is 2 through 8. Tanyao, pinfu, and iipeikou, 3 han.
This is the same sou shape as the tanyao-and-pinfu tenpai, with the man tiles changed into a repeated sequence. Three names, three han. The hand is one pair of sequences, so the name is iipeikou at 1 han. Ryanpeikou is a different yaku, for two pairs of sequences, and it is not built by writing iipeikou twice. There is no second pair of sequences here.
Complete. Shanten −1. White triplet, sequences of 234 man, 456 pin, and 789 sou, pair of 9 sou. White is yakuhai for 1 han. The triplet blocks pinfu. The 9 and the dragon block tanyao.
A dragon does not depend on the seat. White, green, and red each score when they are a triplet. The winning tile is not marked on this fourteen. The white triplet is already three tiles, so the yakuhai is in the set either way. One triplet is not sanankou. The sequences keep the hand out of toitoi. The locked han is 1.
Shanten 0. Waits 6 sou ×4 and 9 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. The white triplet is already in the hand. Sou is 78 beside a pair of 9 sou. Either tile keeps the dragon, so yakuhai is 1 han on both waits.
The yaku is present before the win. That is the usual yakuhai tenpai: the triplet is built, and the wait is somewhere else, often a sequence. Winning on 6 sou makes 678 sou. Winning on 9 sou makes 789 sou. The pair of 9 stays a pair in both readings. Nothing in the sou tiles adds a second pattern yaku. The yakuhai page is the seat rule for winds. This dragon does not need it.
Two han, seven pairs, and waits
Chiitoitsu is seven pairs. It is 2 han, the hand is closed, and the fu is 25 exactly. That 25 is not rounded up to 30 the way an ordinary fu total is. The yaku does not share a score with pinfu or with iipeikou, because those names belong to four melds and a pair. When the same tiles can also be read as ryanpeikou, the 3-han reading is the one that scores, and the 25 fu line is left behind. The seven pairs article is the pure pair hand. The two hands here are the shape that only looks like seven pairs.
Complete. Shanten −1. Man 223344 is 234 twice. Pin 556677 is 567 twice. The pair is 1 sou. That is ryanpeikou, 3 han, closed only. The seven-pair drawing of the same tiles would be 2 han at 25 fu, and that drawing does not score.
Ryanpeikou covers both pairs of sequences. It is not iipeikou plus iipeikou, and iipeikou is not added on top. The iipeikou page is where that 3 han is set down. One sou blocks tanyao. Pinfu would need the winning tile to be two-sided, and this picture does not mark the tile, so the locked han is the 3 from ryanpeikou. The 2 han and the fixed 25 fu remain the right numbers for a hand that is seven pairs and cannot be read as sequences.
Shanten 0. Waits 8 sou ×3: 1 kind, 3 tiles. Man 112233 is 123 twice. Pin 445566 is 456 twice. The single 8 sou is a pair wait. The win is ryanpeikou. The wait is a pair wait, so pinfu is absent. One man blocks tanyao.
One 8 sou is already in the hand, which is why three tiles remain. The seven-pair story is a tanki on 8 sou at 2 han and 25 fu. The sequence story is two pairs of identical sequences, 3 han, and the fu of a meld hand rather than 25. The higher score is the one that counts. Chiitoitsu stays off the list. The wait is still worth naming, because a pair wait is why the fourth han from pinfu is not there.
Sanshoku is the same sequence in man, pin, and sou. Closed, it is 2 han. The yaku is wait-dependent when the third suit is still a taatsu. With 345 already made in man and in pin, sou 34 accepts 2 and 5. Only 5 sou completes 345 and scores sanshoku. The 2 sou side completes 234, and the pattern is gone unless some other yaku remains. The hand below is the other timing. The third 345 is already finished, so the wait cannot turn the yaku off.
Shanten 0. Waits 6 sou ×4 and 9 sou ×4: 2 kinds, 8 tiles. Sequences of 345 man, 345 pin, and 345 sou are already set, with 78 sou and a pair of white. Winning on 6 sou makes 678 sou. Winning on 9 sou makes 789 sou. Both tiles leave the three 345s in place, so both score closed sanshoku, 2 han. The white pair is 2 fu and is not a yaku.
The pair blocks pinfu, and the honor blocks tanyao. There is no second pattern yaku hiding on one of the two sides. Same tenpai, same han. Sanshoku is 2 han closed and 1 han after any call, including a call that is not part of the three sequences. Identical numbers in two suits only, as in the last hand of this page, are not yet this yaku.
Ittsu is 123, 456, and 789 in a single suit. Closed, it is 2 han, and it stacks with pinfu when the rest of the hand allows pinfu. It is the wait-dependent yaku in the clearest form. The column is only finished by one of the tiles.
Shanten 0. Waits 3 man ×3, 6 man ×3, and 9 man ×4: 3 kinds, 10 tiles. The pair is 9 sou, and pin 456 is set. All three waits are two-sided, so pinfu applies on every tile. Ittsu is only the 9 man, which completes 789 man beside 123 and 456. That side is 3 han. The 3 man side and the 6 man side are pinfu only, 1 han.
One man and the 9 sou block tanyao. Closed ittsu is the extra 2 han, and only on the tile that finishes the column. The wide wait is real. Two of the three tiles are a different score. A call would drop ittsu from 2 han to 1 and would delete pinfu, so the open version of the 9 man side is a different han again.
Shanten 0. Waits 3 man ×3, 6 man ×3, and 9 man ×4: 3 kinds, 10 tiles. Sou 234 is the fourth sequence, and the pair is 9 sou. The 9 man side is ittsu plus pinfu, 3 han. The 3 man side and the 6 man side are pinfu, 1 han. Man and sou are both numbered suits, so the hand is not honitsu.
The wait counts match the pin hand above. The second suit changed, and the han split did not. Honitsu needs every numbered tile in one suit, honors allowed. A sou sequence next to a man column fails that test on every tile, including the 9 man. The flush han is not a reward for holding a long run of one suit while another suit is still in the hand.
Honitsu, chanta, and toitoi
Honitsu is one suit plus honors. Closed, it is 3 han. Open, it is 2. It stacks with yakuhai when the honor is a scoring triplet, and it stacks with ittsu when the column is in that same suit. Chinitsu is the hand with the honors removed, at 6 han closed, and honitsu does not also score on a pure one-suit hand. This directory has no separate honitsu article. The han is still part of the count.
Shanten 0. Waits 3 man ×3, 6 man ×3, and 9 man ×2: 3 kinds, 8 tiles. The white triplet is yakuhai for 1 han. Every numbered tile is man, so closed honitsu is 3 han on every wait. The 9 man side also completes 123, 456, and 789, which adds closed ittsu for 2 han. That side is 6 han. The 3 man side and the 6 man side stay at 4 han.
Two 9 man are already in the hand, so that side has 2 tiles left. The white triplet blocks pinfu. The terminals and the dragon block tanyao. Six han is a haneman. Four han still has to be checked against fu before you know whether it is a mangan, which is the next section. The dragon is doing two jobs at once: it is the yakuhai, and it is the honor that makes the one-suit hand honitsu rather than chinitsu.
Complete. Shanten −1. Man is 123, 456, and 789, which is closed ittsu, 2 han. Sou 234 and the pair of 9 sou are a second suit. The locked han is the ittsu. Honitsu is a different test, and this hand fails it.
The picture does not mark the winning tile, so pinfu is not part of the locked claim. The column itself does not depend on that tile. Man 123456789 has one grouping, and ittsu is in it. Putting this fourteen next to the honitsu tenpai is the whole flush test: one numbered suit, or more than one. The 3 han of closed honitsu belongs to the hand that kept the dragon and dropped the sou sequence.
Shanten 0. Shanpon on 1 pin ×2 and 9 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 4 tiles. East round, South seat. Sequences of 123 man and 789 man, and the East triplet, each include a terminal or an honor. Either pair that remains is a terminal. Closed chanta is 2 han. East is the round wind, so the triplet is also yakuhai. A ron on either tile is 3 han.
Chanta needs a terminal or an honor in every group, and it needs at least one honor somewhere, which is why the name is chanta rather than junchan. The sequences keep the hand out of toitoi. The wait is shanpon, so pinfu is absent. On the East seat the same triplet would also be the seat wind, and the wind han would become 2, for 4 han with the chanta. South seat scores the round wind once. The fu of the shanpon, and the payment, are on the scoring page. The toitoi sketch is the dragon shanpon earlier on this page: four triplets, with sanankou and one yakuhai added on the ron.
The same tenpai, a different tile
Tenpai is a set of tiles. Han is a property of the winning tile as well. Two waits can share a shape and still be different scores, because one tile completes a pattern and the other completes a legal hand that lacks it. The ittsu hands and the honitsu hand are the three splits. The sanshoku hand is the control, where the pattern was already finished.
| Tenpai | Tile | Han | Other tiles | Han |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man 12345678, pin 456, pair 9 sou | 9 man | 3 | 3 man, 6 man | 1 |
| Man 12345678, sou 234, pair 9 sou | 9 man | 3 | 3 man, 6 man | 1 |
| Man 1234567899, white triplet | 9 man | 6 | 3 man, 6 man | 4 |
| 345 in three suits, 78 sou, white pair | 6 sou and 9 sou | 2 | — | 2 |
The first row is ittsu plus pinfu against pinfu alone. The second row is the same split with the extra sequence moved to sou. The third row keeps honitsu and yakuhai on every tile, and adds ittsu only on 9 man. The fourth row keeps sanshoku on both tiles, because 345 sou is already a meld. Read the winning tile before you add the han. A wide wait is a statement about how many tiles finish the shape. It is not a statement that those tiles share a score.
Shanten 0. Waits 4 sou ×4 and 7 sou ×2: 2 kinds, 6 tiles. Sequences of 345 man, 678 man, and 456 pin, with 56 sou and a pair of 7 sou. Both tiles are two-sided. Every tile is 2 through 8, and the pair is not a value pair. Tanyao and pinfu, 2 han, on 4 sou and on 7 sou.
Pin 456 and the sou sequence are the same numbers only on the 4 sou side, and they are different suits, so they are not iipeikou. Two suits are not sanshoku. The stack is exactly two names on both tiles. That is the ordinary closed all-simples ryanmen. Use it as the baseline when a third name appears on only one side of some other tenpai.
The mangan line
Below a limit, the payment still depends on fu. The scoring page owns that product. Han decides when the product stops. Mangan is 5 han at any fu, 4 han at 40 fu or more, or 3 han at 70 fu or more. Six or seven han is a haneman. The cells, the dealer payments, and the tsumo splits are on the Score Table. This page does not relist them.
Two of the hands above are already on that line, which is why the han count matters before anyone multiplies.
The dragon shanpon ron is 5 han: toitoi, sanankou, and one dragon. Five han is a mangan whatever the fu total is. The tsumo of that same wait is a yakuman, so the mangan formula is not applied on top of suuankou either. Replacement runs in one direction. A yakuman replaces a mangan. A mangan does not get added to a yakuman.
The honitsu tenpai is the 4-han case. White is a closed honor triplet, 8 fu. A closed ron starts at 20, adds 10, and adds that 8, which is 38, and 38 rounds up to 40. The 3 man side and the 6 man side are 4 han at 40 fu, so they meet the mangan line. The 9 man side is 6 han, a haneman, and the fu is no longer what picks the row. The rounding rule is on the fu page. The amounts are on the score table. Four han at 30 fu stays under the line. The closed dragon is why this 4 han is already a mangan.
Riichi, Chinese Official, and Sichuan
What to study next
- Name the groups, then the wait, then every pattern yaku. The ten articles are tanyao, pinfu, iipeikou, yakuhai, sanshoku, ittsu, chiitoitsu, toitoi, chanta, and sanankou. The yaku guide is the closed, open, and kuisagari pass over that list.
- Add the han, including a situational han from Riichi Mahjong when you actually have one. Add dora, red fives, and ura only after a yaku exists.
- Count fu on Fu Calculation Basics. A pinfu ron is 30. Seven pairs stay at 25. A dragon pair is 2 fu and 0 han.
- Read the cell on the Score Table, or follow Scoring Basics until a limit row replaces the product.
- Drill the split. Yaku training asks for the names. Score training gives the names and the seat and asks for fu, han, and the payment. The han in that second drill has no dora in it.