144 is the standard Chinese answer, and it is the number this catalogue is named for. A set of that size contains 108 numbered suit tiles, 16 winds, 12 dragons, and 8 flowers and seasons. If the box in front of you holds 136 or 152 instead, it was built for a different tradition, and the difference sits almost entirely in two blocks: the bonus tiles and the jokers.
Below is each specification laid out in full, followed by a way to audit an inherited set in about four minutes without knowing a single Chinese numeral.
The 144-tile composition
| Block | Faces | Copies each | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circles one to nine | 9 | 4 | 36 |
| Bamboo one to nine | 9 | 4 | 36 |
| Characters one to nine | 9 | 4 | 36 |
| Winds: east, south, west, north | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Dragons: red, green, white | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Flowers | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Seasons | 4 | 1 | 4 |
Three blocks of 36 give 108. Winds and dragons together give 28 honours. The eight bonus tiles finish the count. Every face except the bonus tiles exists four times over, which is the structural fact that makes both table play and screen pairing work; the tile-by-tile tour of the set goes through what each of those faces shows.
136: the riichi count
Japanese riichi uses 34 distinct faces with four copies of each, and 34 times 4 is 136. Those 34 are precisely the Chinese set minus the flowers and seasons. Riichi has no bonus draw and no replacement tile from the end of the wall, so the eight painted tiles have nothing to do and were dropped.
Riichi sets often include red-marked fives, one in each suit, used as bonus-scoring versions of an ordinary tile. These replace a normal copy rather than joining the set, so the count stays at 136. Some boxes also carry spare red fives and blanks loose in a corner tray, which is why a riichi set can rattle with more than 136 pieces while still being a 136-tile set.
152: the American count
The American game keeps all 144 traditional tiles and adds eight jokers, giving 152. Jokers substitute inside groups of three or more under the rules published each year, which makes them the most-handled tiles in the box and the first to show wear.
American boxes commonly include blanks as well, sometimes four, sometimes more, intended as replacements to be engraved if a tile is lost. Counting those in produces figures such as 156 or 166, which is where a good deal of online confusion originates: the blanks are stationery, not part of the deal.
So which count is correct
All of them, for the game each was made for. A 136 box is not a 144 box with tiles missing, and a 152 box is not padded. The reliable diagnostic is the flowers block: painted tiles present means a Chinese or American set, painted tiles absent means riichi, and jokers present means American. Tile size helps too, since riichi tiles are noticeably larger and thicker than the small Chinese ones.
Auditing a set you already own
Turn everything face up and build seven piles. It goes faster than sorting by rank and needs no reading.
- Three piles for the numbered suits: discs, green canes, and tiles with two stacked glyphs. Each should come to 36.
- One pile for tiles with a single large glyph in black – the winds. Sixteen.
- One pile for the red glyph, the green glyph and the blank or outlined faces – the dragons. Twelve.
- One pile for anything with a picture and a small corner number. Eight in a Chinese set, none in riichi.
- One pile for jokers and blanks, which belongs to the box rather than the game.
Any pile that lands one or two short tells you exactly what to look for, and a suit pile at 35 usually means a tile is under the table rather than lost. Missing tiles matter more at a table than they look: a wall built short throws off the deal, which is one reason the rest of the table kit includes racks and counters that keep everything visible. Cartoon Mahjong is one of the layouts kept on this site.
Figures you will see quoted elsewhere
Numbers above 152 nearly always come from counting the stationery. Boxes ship with blanks for replacements, and depending on how many were included the same American set gets described as 152, 156 or 166 by different sellers. Numbers between 144 and 152 usually mean a partial complement of jokers, either because the set was made when fewer were standard or because some have been lost.
Numbers below 136 mean tiles are missing, with one exception worth knowing: simplified sets sold for teaching sometimes drop the character suit entirely, leaving 100 or so tiles and a game that is easier to learn and not quite the same game. If a listing quotes a figure and does not say what is in the box, the flowers-and-jokers test above settles it faster than asking.
What the count means on a screen
The classic turtle board uses all 144 in five stacked levels, and since matching removes two tiles at a time, a full board is 72 pairs. That is the arithmetic behind every solitaire layout of standard size, and it is why a board either clears completely or deadlocks with an even number of tiles remaining – never with one. The site’s own example of it is Mahjong Impossible.
Smaller shapes exist deliberately. Short layouts for a quick round, simplified boards on the boards built for children, and very large shapes that use a doubled set of 288 all appear across the catalogue. They are layout decisions rather than different sets, and the faces on them come from the same 42 designs described above. If you want to see the standard count on screen, Mahjong Tower stacks the full complement into a single shape. A layout of that kind in the catalogue here is Mahjong Deluxe.
One last practical note. Because flowers and seasons exist only once each, a screen layout that included them without a grouping rule would be unsolvable from the first move. Every implementation that uses the full 144 therefore treats the four flowers as mutually matchable and the four seasons likewise, which is the single largest difference between the set as it works on a table and the set as it works in a layout.
