Set up the table

What do we need?

Four players, a complete 144-tile set, and two or three dice. Turn all the tiles face down and mix them in the middle.

Who is East?

Everyone rolls the dice. The highest total becomes East; tied players roll again. South sits to East’s right, West sits opposite, and North sits to East’s left.

How do we build the walls?

Each player builds 18 stacks of two tiles. Push the four rows together to make the wall. The corners overlap slightly, so it will not be a perfect square.

How do we choose and break the wall?

1. Roll the dice. The total chooses both the wall and the break point. In this example, 3 + 2 + 1 = 6. Count players anticlockwise, starting with East as 1; six lands on South.

2. On South’s wall, count 6 stacks from right to left.
3. Pull the wall apart after stack 6. The uncounted side is the head; the six counted stacks are the tail.

How do we deal the tiles?

From the head, take two stacks — four tiles — at a time. Deal East → South → West → North, then repeat three times so everyone has 12.

Finally, East takes two top tiles in one jump — the first and third top tiles — to reach 14. South, West and North then take one tile each to reach 13.

What about Flowers and Seasons?

Expose them beside your hand and take replacements from the wall tail, starting with East. Repeat if a replacement is another Flower or Season.

Are we ready to play?

East should have 14 playing tiles; everyone else should have 13. Bonus tiles sit exposed beside the hand. East discards first.