Mahjong Watch News
Oogai Hiromi Pro's Mahjong Manner Lecture No.1
December 25th 2015
No. 1
~ The following article is from “Mahjong Kai No 4” ~
Are manners getting worse!?
Several years ago I was playing in Pin Jan (Translator: a mahjong parlor chain) in Hokkaido. When I tsumoed a Tanyao Chiitoi, I said "1600 and 3200". However, an old lady on the same table seems a little mad, and said "Just say one six and three two. I couldn't understand what you just said." Well I guess I should " do as the Romans do". So for the next hand I won, I declared "properly", not sure if it's actually proper, "seven and one three".
Perhaps she's more used to that kind of point declaration. Maybe that way is the common way of declaring points in this store. Not that I'm getting mad because of that though, if I follow their way, then it's gonna be fine.
Back to our topic today, recently I have a chance to speak to a young mahjong player. (Translator: We will call him Y in this article from now on)
He's in his mid twenties, so of course he already have some common sense on the society. Also he has incredibly long experience of playing mahjong, so his skill are great and he keeps a proper good manner. And he said this to me:
"Don't you think that player's manners are getting worse recently?"
"Bad manner", without a Bad Intent
The bad manners we are talking here, are not the obvious things like Kyoda (slamming the tile when you discard), Saki-tusmo (drawing before the privious player discards) or putting your foot on the chair.
Because the mahjong parlors are teaching, or let's say requiring people to not do these things, Y also agrees that these bad manners are decreasing fast.
We are talking about some more subtle manners. Just like the old lady in the previous part, these bad manners are increasing. So basically it's not a bad manner with bad intention, it's just that people doing these are having the wrong common sense on mahjong. They think what they do is normal in the mahjong community.
It might be a little hard to understand this abstract concept, let's look at an example. When breaking the wall, some people would intentionally make the wall in front of them into 7 piles, if the wall in front of them breaks. (Translator: By doing this, the 7-pile-wall will not be drawn. Left most two piles will be the Rinshan tiles, and the rest will be Dora indicators). If they only had 5 piles, they will take 2 piles from the right hand side. And if there are more than 7 piles they will put the extra into the wall on the right hand side. You can actually see this a lot recently.
Do not touch the walls in front of other players
It came from mahjong parlor staffs?
So, this is how I started this article series. I want the mahjong community to know these "actions to be worried".
Check your manners from other's view
Players = Referee
Author: Oogai, Hiromi
Profile: Born in 1960 and from Tokyo. With the 101 Kyogi-Renmei. The 22nd and 30th champion. After experiencing as a family-style restaurant manager, he fell in love with the competitive mahjong style and goes into the Pro Mahjong industry.
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Translator Zixuan "Shawn" Jiang
Known as "Mio" at LAPOM. I wan born in Shanghai, China and I am living in the United States now. I have 9 years of mahjong experience. I represented USA in the IORMC in 2016 and in WRC 2017.