We return for yet another post in the Understanding Mahjong series! Today we’ll be taking a look at Pon No Michi Episode 3: Let’s Eat a Meal, where the girls will be cooking up something good!
To be honest, there’s not much mahjong in this episode, but I’ll try to stretch this as much as I can
Note: I know mahjong, but not anime or manga (or even proper Japanese). Anything written outside of mahjong strategy and terminology was just looked up on the internet (including translations). If I’ve missed or misrepresented any anime or manga references, or if there’s anything else you’d like to add, let me know in the comments.
Genroku Zumi Intro
Like last episode, it starts off with another dream sequence. This time, it’s Pai who is teaching everyone how to cheat. She builds a wall and starts revealing tiles. Every tile she flips over is a souzu tile, to the amazement of the other people at the table. Pai wakes up from the dream and mutters “Genroku zumi…“
Genroku zumi (元禄積み) is a cheating technique where you rig your draws from the start when you build your wall. Like the previous episode, this scene directly references All Mahjong Cheating Tricks Revealed (イカサマ麻雀に打ち勝つ手口公開) featuring Takeo Kojima (小島武夫).
Explanation on how the technique works will come later.
Cooking
The scene starts off in the mahjong parlour. Since the stove works, the group decides that the day will be spent cooking and cleaning up the place.
Looking at the various appliances in the parlour, they find a towel warmer. Riche offers to provide the towels for them to use.
Like many Japanese establishments, wet towels (おしぼり, oshibori) are used for freshening up and cleaning your hands. In mahjong parlours, there are hot towels (あつしぼ, atsushibo) and cold towels (つめしぼ, tsumeshibo).
Next, they take a look at the fridge and the cupboards. With all the bowls and cup, Izumi thinks that the jansou must have offered a lot of different food offerings.
This is not the first piece of mahjong media that covers food in a mahjong parlour. First published in 2019, Mako Someya’s Mahjong Parlour Food (染谷まこの雀荘メシ, Someya Mako no Jansou Meshi) is a spinoff of the Saki series where they make food for a mahjong parlour.
After looking at the refrigerator and finding an ice cube dispenser, Izumi uncovers the Pon-Pon Drink case. Pon Po-po-pon Po-pon Pon Pon.
While Nashiko and Izumi seeing what else the place has, Pai and Riche figure out how to clean and spruce up the place. Pai floats many different ideas, from a classy cafe to a retro theme. Riche offers to get the work done but the idea is shot down by Pai.
Like in business, catering to a certain audience can help business. Take the Mahjong Bar Citrus, a classy bar that features mahjong as their sport of choice on their screens.
Back with Nashiko and Izumi, they try to decide what to cook. Nashiko wants sashimi, but raw fish doesn’t require the stove. Pacing and trying to figure out what to eat, Nashiko finds the old menu. After Pai and Riche find a rice cooker, Izumi firmly confirms that they will be making curry.
Since you play with your hands, the food cannot be messy and should be eaten either with just one hand or using utensils. If we compare it to the menu at the Bellbird in Shinbashi (which actively welcomes overseas players), many of the drinks are similar, as well as some similarities with the food.
Nashiko and Izumi go out grocery shopping while Pai and Riche stay and clean. They buy their ingredients (except for the expensive fish) and a lot of lemons and head off to buy cola. They have a chance encounter with Izumi’s mom, who offers to give them the fish she just bought. As a group, they head into the store, which is a real store in Onomichi. In fact, a lot of the places in the anime are based on real locations in Onomichi.
There’s a saying attributed to Aki Nikaido (professional with the Japan Professional Mahjong League, member of M-League’s EX Furinkazan and the subject of the mahjong manga aki): 「ドラは恋人」(dora wa aijin). In English, it is often translated to “Treat the dora as your lover”. I don’t think this is what they mean by that.
Genroku Zumi Explained
As Nashiko and Izumi are grocery shopping, Pai asks Riche about genroku zumi and how to do it.
If the wall across from you is broken (through rigging the dice roll, for example), then you rig the top tile of the 1st stack and every other stack after that (3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.). If your wall is not broken during the initial deal, then every tile you draw will be the tile you rigged. You can rig it with a single suit like Riche did, but it can be much more valuable to rig it with something like dragons to get Big Three Dragons.
Depending on the seat you start as, that will determine which tile you will rig (whether even or odd stacks, top or bottom).
- East: Top row, Even stacks
- South: Bottom row, Odd stacks
- West: Top row, Odd stacks
- North: Bottom row, Even stacks.
For the example shown by Riche, it will only work if you are west.
If someone calls or shifts the wall in some other way, then additional sleight of hand can be used to get the tile you rigged. For example, if someone calls chii and you are expected to draw the bottom of the 2nd stack, then you switch that tile with the top of the 3rd stack.
Note that this shifting is only possible if the top row is rigged.
Metaphors
When Nashiko and Izumi return to the jansou, they reveal the whole fish and Nashiko’s plan to have curry and sashimi together. Pai is surprised because of the prohibitively expensive cost of a whole fish.
“It’s like being tenpai for Thirteen Orphans with no winning tiles left.” is how Riche describes the current situation. Thirteen Orphans (国士無双) is a yakuman which requires one of each terminal and honour.
To translate, Nashiko wants something really expensive, but not having enough to actually be able to obtain it. She is spending beyond her means. Her eyes are bigger than her stomach. Or she could be saying it would leave a bad taste in your mouth like not being able to win.
After Riche offers to pay for half, the girls stop her. She’s really putting the “rich” in Riche
Then the girls start cooking.
As Riche starts setting up the side tables, something catches her eye.
Mahjong tables take up a good amount of space. When not in use, some tables can be folded up and put in storage. However, there is an alternative. With the use of a table board (テーブルボード), you can use it as if it were a regular table without concern for it being damaged. Since this table is styled like an AMOS JP-EX, the board they use is probably the official AMOS JP series dedicated table board.
As Pai approaches Nashiko keeping watch on the curry, Nashiko gives her the ladle so she can start on the sashimi. Shocked that Nashiko was serious about the sashimi, Pai compares it to “calling a double riichi and dealing in with the haitei”.
A double riichi (ダブルリーチ) is a riichi call that is done on the very first turn with no interruptions. Worth double the number of han of a regular riichi, this yaku is relatively rare.
The haitei (海底, ハイテイ) is the last tile in the live wall. If nobody wins after this tile is discarded, then the hand goes to an exhaustive draw. If the player who draws it wins with it, then they will qualify for the yaku haitei raoyue (海底撈月, lit. scooping the moon from the bottom of the sea), typically known as simply haitei. If an opponent wins with the last discarded tile in the game, then that player would qualify for houtei raoyui (河底撈魚, lit. scooping a fish from the bottom of the river), typically known as simply houtei.
Typically one would expect to win with such an early tenpai. However, dealing in with the final tile is a great shock.
As a side note, winning with the haitei after calling a double riichi is equally as shocking and is a local yaku worth yakuman called Ishinouenimosannen (石の上にも三年).
As Riche finishes polishing the table, she remarks that it’s sparkling like a shiro pocchi. The shiro pocchi or haku pocchi (白ポッチ) is a special white dragon that is marked in the middle with a dot or sometimes a gem. In rulesets that use it, if you are in riichi and draw the shiro pocchi, then it is considered a wild card and can be any tile you want it to be. Some ruleset will require it to be picked up on the very next turn (the ippatsu turn) for it to count.
As Pai and Nashiko finish up cooking, Izumi and Riche go off to read some mahjong manga. There are a lot of mahjong manga and some of those series are long. For example, Tenpai (天牌) has over 1,000 chapters and Akagi (アカギ) is more than 300 chapters long.
While Pai stirs and Nashiko finishes prepping the sashimi, Nashiko states that she’ll make soup with the rest of the fish. With Pai thinking Nashiko’s greed is unbelievable, Nashiko remarks “Why win on Three Concealed Triplets when you can go for a Single-wait Four Concealed Triplets?” Pai replies, “Winning with 3,900 is best”.
Three Concealed Triplets (三暗刻, sanankou) is a yaku worth 2 han which, as it says, requires your hand to have three concealed triplets (with quads also counting as a triplet for this purpose). Note that the hand can be open, but the triplets must not be open (whether completing the triplet by ron or calling them).
Single-Wait Four Concealed Triplets (四暗刻単騎, suuankou tanki) is a yakuman that requires four concealed triplets/quads already in a player’s hand and is waiting to complete the pair.
Some players would take the win that they are given and be satisfied with three concealed triplets. However, ambitious, more greedy players will try to go for a single-wait four concealed triplets. Of course, the game situation will always affect one’s decision.
As for Pai’s remark, it could be a pun. Zanku is another way of saying sankyuu. It both refers to 3,900 (san meaning three, kyuu meaning nine), which is possible with a 2 han/60 fu ron (which requires a sequence), and the words “thank you”. In short, she’s saying to be thankful with what you have now and just win.
Time To Eat
After everything is set up, it’s time for the girls (and the cameras) to eat.
In mahjong, “to eat” (喰う) is synonymous with calling. As a result, there are many terms which use the term.
- Kuitan (喰いタン): Literally “called tanyao”, this is a rule that determines whether All Simples is allowed to be used in an open hand. In most modern rulesets, this is allowed. Also called “open tanyao”
- Kuisagari (喰い下がり): Literally “eat and decrease”, this is a group of yaku whose han value is decreased if won with an open hand. Mixed Triple Sequences (2 → 1), Full Straight (2 → 1), Half Outside Hand (2 → 1), Fully Outside Hand (3 → 2), Half Flush (3 → 2) and Full Flush (6 → 5) are all yaku that are affected by kuisagari.
- Kuikae (喰い替え): This is a rule that restricts what you can discard based on what you call. If you call a pon, then you are not allowed to discard that tile. If you call chii, then you can’t discard that tile or the tile on the other side of the potential sequence (for example, if you call a 7 for a 5-6-7 sequence, then you can’t discard the 7 or the 4).
With the four plates of curry and the one plate of sashimi in the middle, they form a similar shape to the red 5 pin tile. Though probably not a direct reference, the 5 pin pattern in food was also done by Rinji Kiriya for his daughter Koume in the manga Tetsunaki no Kirinji (鉄鳴きの麒麟児). Kirinji is written by Nagahisa Tsukawaki (塚脇 永久), better known as Uhyosuke (ウヒョ助).
They sit down and eat, with Chombo on the table eating the sashimi. Nashiko offers Riche some sashimi and Riche eats it off of Nashiko’s chopsticks. When they’re done, they share some frozen treats and learn that there are many different ways to call it.
Closing
Warning: Possible nightmare fuel
The ending art was drawn by Koji Matsumoto (松本光司) (unrelated to the former mahjong pro of a similar name (松本浩司) who used to be in Saikouisen’s A1- League), a mangaka best known for the Higanjima series. This is not related to mahjong in any way.
And that’s all for this episode! Next episode, the girls hit the web for some online competition!
If this anime is getting you interested in mahjong, consider joining a local riichi mahjong club to learn more about the game!
Jellicode's Jansou 