The game is played with 136 tiles, which are divided into four distinct and separate suits. These four suits are called the Bamboo, Dot, Character and Honor Suits.

The first three of these suits score equally and are arranged in the same manner, that is, there are 36 tiles in each, numbering from one to nine, and there are four tiles of each numeral.

The fourth suit, known as the honor suit, is divided into three parts: the Dragons, the Winds and the Mandarins. Of the Dragons, there are four apiece of three different kinds, the Red, Green and White Dragons. The Winds are North, South, East and West with four tiles alike for each. The Mandarins (also called Seasons, and Flowers), are 8 in number, and as they are only used in limit hands, will be discussed later.

From Illustration No. 2 a player will see that there are four of every different tile in the set, and that there are 34 different tiles.