​Mahjong Stars

I always impose my own view on you like a tyrant, but not this time.

I am going to tell you about a problem I have not yet solved. I am unsure if these are just about manners, but just take a look.

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The late ron declaration is one of my unsolved problems. It is a difficult problem for staff members to handle.

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First, I will tell you a shameful story about myself. I began to have trouble with late ron declarations when I made a foolish mistake thirty years ago.

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In those days, everyone played mahjong with manners so poor that present-day players would leave table after just one game.

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I was just a student, and the elder players at the table would look at me and say, “Draw your tile faster!” (the implication being to sakizumo, or draw a tile before the player before me had made their discard).

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In the middle of the final hand of the game, I was in 3rd place and got to tenpai for pinfu with 1 dora. Each score is below:

East player 25400

South player 24300 (me)

West player 26900

North player 23400

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If I called riichi, I would get 1st place no matter who dealt into my hand, but I could be 4th place due to the riichi bet. I decided not to declare ron from either the east or north players.

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This plan was very timid in spite of my youth. As it turned out, my toimen (the north player) discarded my winning tile. I saw my shimocha (the west player) moving both of their hands to the table, so at that instant, I declared, “ron”.

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In those days, older players tended not to declare when they won, instead just opening their hands. As a result, my declaration was regarded as being earlier than my shimocha’s. Because of the double ron, I finished the game in 2nd place. Nobody felt strange because my declaration was very quick, but I know it was a kind of late ron.

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As a result, I could not focus on the game for the rest of the day. Even after I finished playing, I was annoyed about it until the next day. It would be exaggerating to say that this was “self-hatred”, but it was worse than just a “bad aftertaste”, and this difficult feeling stayed with me for some time.

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By the way, this is off-topic as usual, I heard some people saying “遅ロン” (late ron, “osoron”) as “chiron”. I think people should say “osoron” as they said traditionally. This is because it is easier for the listener to figure out its meaning. This is the same concept as reading “Shiun” as “yubiun”.

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Returning to the main story, several years later, a similar incident occurred when I found myself working in a mahjong-related field. I was playing as a customer at a parlor, and a certain young pro at my table made a late ron. I remember that situation clearly for some reason.

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He was not doing well at all that day. In the final hand of the 6th or so match, he was in 4th place and 6300 points behind 3rd place (who happened to be the manager of the store). When the half of the hand passed, he called riichi after some thought. I was very far ahead and the last dealer, so I did not need to win the hand. But my hand got to tenpai with kanchan waiting on