The world of Mahjong has been growing over the years, and one style that is growing over the others, is Riichi Mahjong.
Also known as Japanese style Mahjong, this style is now played all over the world. A great population in the North and South Americas, multiple European countries are some known areas outside of Japan.
As a child growing up in Japan, the word "Mahjong" usually correlated to several things. Smoking. Gambling. Yakuza. Older people generally played the game late at night while smoking, and money was on the table.
But there is a new wave of Riichi Mahjong that doesn't involve any of these.
There is a more competitve version, where people compete for points and participate in leagues and tournaments. This is called Kyo-Gi Mahjong. This literally translates to "Competition Mahjong".
Another version , where people play for fun and for the health benefits for the critical thinking element that prevents the older folks from certain illness. This is called Ken-Ko Mahjong. This literally translates to "Healthy Mahjong".
I first encountered Mahjong when I was in junior high. A manga called "Tetsuya" was on one of the weekly comics. After school, we went to the local book store to catch the latest volume, even though we didn't fully understand what it was at the time.
The funny thing is that this manga was all about the gambling and dark side of Mahjong! But it was definitely eye catching for a young boy who has no knowledge of the dark world. The story is about the legendary Mahjong player Tetsuya Asada (Who is an actual person by the way!) and his journey of how Mahjong impacted his life after the war.
His amazing luck and sense helped him go through many battles in life, as well as Mahjong matches. The manga also focused on using "skills", also known as cheating skills. My friends all imagined that Mahjong was exactly like what we read in "Tetsuya", but the reality was nothing like that.
A little after "Tetsuya", I got into other Mahjong mangas such as "Akagi", another fan favorite. This one was more about how mentally you have to be in order to win in a dark society.
These two mangas got myself and a few other friends to learn how to play the game. It was difficult at first to say the least, but each one of us wanted to become like Tetsuya or Akagi, and that kept us motivated.
One day, while playing Mahjong in our club room (and not practicing), our coach came in the locker room. He said he came in because he heard some tiles. Mahjong tiles can be pretty loud and noticeable at times! But he came in and pointed out that we were playing the entire game all wrong. He taught us some basics, but left the room, advising us that we shouldn't play if we were kids.
At that point in time, Mahjong was still correlated with gambling, so I can understand why he had to say that as a teacher.
But that was several decades ago. A new era of Mahjong players are on the rise. Next time, I will explain why myself and many others got into Riichi Mahjong.