How to Count Fu in Riichi Mahjong
Fu (符) measures the shape of your winning hand — how you won, which triplets and quads it holds, the value of the pair, and how tight the final wait was. Combined with han, fu determines your point total: base points = fu × 2^(2 + han). Count every bonus, then round the total up to the nearest 10 at the very end.
Fu calculation in six steps
1.Start with 20 base fu (fuutei)
Every standard winning hand starts at 20 fu, called fuutei (副底). This is the floor — everything else is added on top.
2.Add fu for how you won
- Closed-hand ron: +10 fu (menzen-kafu). Only applies when your hand has no open calls.
- Tsumo (self-draw): +2 fu — whether the hand is open or closed. The one exception is pinfu tsumo, which waives the +2 and stays at 20 fu.
- An open-hand ron adds nothing at this step.
3.Add fu for triplets and quads
Only pungs and kans score fu — chows are always 0. Fu doubles when the set is closed instead of open, doubles again for terminals (1s and 9s) or honors instead of simples (2–8), and a kan is worth four times the matching pung.
| Set | Simples (2–8) | Terminals & honors |
|---|---|---|
| Open pung (minko) | 2 | 4 |
| Closed pung (anko) | 4 | 8 |
| Open kan (minkan) | 8 | 16 |
| Closed kan (ankan) | 16 | 32 |
| Chow (sequence) | 0 | 0 |
4.Add fu for a yakuhai pair
If your pair is a value tile — any dragon, your seat wind, or the round wind — add +2 fu. A pair of simples, terminals, or non-value winds is worth 0. If your seat wind and the round wind are the same tile (a “double wind” pair), some rulesets count it as 4 fu; many, including most modern Japanese rules, still count 2.
5.Add fu for a difficult wait
- Kanchan (closed wait): +2 fu — e.g. 4-6 waiting on the 5 in the middle.
- Penchan (edge wait): +2 fu — 1-2 waiting on 3, or 8-9 waiting on 7.
- Tanki (pair wait): +2 fu — waiting to complete your pair.
- Ryanmen (open two-sided) and shanpon waits: 0 fu. On a shanpon ron, the completed triplet counts as an open pung for fu; completed by tsumo, it counts as closed.
6.Round up to the nearest 10
Sum everything, then round up to the next multiple of 10: 32 becomes 40, 44 becomes 50, and an exact 40 stays 40. Rounding always happens last, on the grand total — never on individual items.
Special cases to memorize
- Chiitoitsu is a flat 25 fu. Seven pairs skips fu counting entirely: always 25 fu, never rounded up to 30, and no other fu bonuses apply.
- Pinfu is 30 fu on ron, 20 fu on tsumo. A closed pinfu ron is 20 base + 10 menzen-kafu = 30 fu. On tsumo, the pinfu yaku waives the usual +2 tsumo fu, so the hand stays at exactly 20 fu.
- An open hand with no fu bonuses rons at 30 fu. An open pinfu-shaped hand (all chows, valueless pair, two-sided wait) won by ron would total just 20 fu — by convention it is scored as 30 fu instead. This is often called kuipinfu.
- Rinshan and haitei don’t change fu. Rinshan kaihou (win off a kan replacement tile) and haitei raoyue (win on the last draw) each add a han, but the fu count is that of a normal tsumo — just the usual +2, nothing extra.
Three hands, counted line by line
Example 1 — Closed ron with a terminal pung and kanchan wait
Closed hand: 111m (closed pung of 1-man), 456p, 678p, 3s5s waiting on 4s (kanchan), pair of 9s. Riichi declared, won by ron on 4s.
| Item | Fu | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Base fu (fuutei) | 20 | 20 |
| Closed ron (menzen-kafu) | +10 | 30 |
| Closed pung of 1m (terminal) | +8 | 38 |
| Two chows (456p, 678p) | +0 | 38 |
| Pair of 9s (not yakuhai) | +0 | 38 |
| Kanchan wait on 4s | +2 | 40 |
| Round up to nearest 10 | — | 40 fu |
Result: 40 fu (already a multiple of 10, no rounding needed). With riichi as the only yaku that's 1 han 40 fu — a 1,300-point non-dealer ron.
Example 2 — Open hand, tsumo, rounding in action
Open hand: 888p called as an open pung, closed pung of haku (white dragon), two chows, and a tanki (pair) wait completed by tsumo.
| Item | Fu | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Base fu (fuutei) | 20 | 20 |
| Tsumo | +2 | 22 |
| Open pung of 8p (simple) | +2 | 24 |
| Closed pung of haku (honor) | +8 | 32 |
| Two chows | +0 | 32 |
| Tanki wait on the pair | +2 | 34 |
| Round up to nearest 10 | — | 40 fu |
Result: 34 fu rounds up to 40 fu. With yakuhai (haku) as the yaku that's 1 han 40 fu — non-dealer tsumo of 400/700 (1,500 points total).
Example 3 — Pinfu tsumo stays at 20 fu
Closed hand: four chows, a non-yakuhai pair, and an open two-sided (ryanmen) wait, won by tsumo. This is the definition of pinfu.
| Item | Fu | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Base fu (fuutei) | 20 | 20 |
| Four chows | +0 | 20 |
| Non-yakuhai pair | +0 | 20 |
| Ryanmen (two-sided) wait | +0 | 20 |
| Tsumo (waived — pinfu rule) | +0 | 20 |
| Round up to nearest 10 | — | 20 fu |
Result: Pinfu + menzen tsumo = 2 han 20 fu — non-dealer tsumo of 400/700 (1,500 points total). Note it pays exactly the same as 1 han 40 fu.
What your fu is worth
Once you have han and fu, the payout is fixed. Here’s the non-dealer ron value for the two most common fu counts — see the full riichi score table for every han/fu combination, tsumo splits, and dealer values.
| Han | 30 fu | 40 fu |
|---|---|---|
| 1 han | 1,000 | 1,300 |
| 2 han | 2,000 | 2,600 |
| 3 han | 3,900 | 5,200 |
| 4 han | 7,700 | 8,000 (mangan) |
Non-dealer ron values. Notice the pattern: each extra han roughly doubles the payout until the mangan cap at 8,000 points.
Fu counting questions
What is fu?+
Fu (符) are the base points of a Riichi mahjong hand, measuring its structural shape: how you won, what triplets and quads it contains, whether the pair is a value tile, and how hard the final wait was. Every hand starts at 20 fu, bonuses are added, and the total is rounded up to the nearest 10. Fu is then combined with han to produce the final score — base points equal fu × 2^(2 + han).
Why is my pinfu hand 30 fu?+
A closed pinfu hand won by ron scores 20 base fu plus 10 fu for the closed-hand ron bonus (menzen-kafu), giving 30 fu. Pinfu's shape contributes zero fu by definition — all chows, a valueless pair, and a two-sided wait. Won by tsumo, the same hand stays at 20 fu because the pinfu rule waives the usual +2 tsumo fu.
Is chiitoitsu always 25 fu?+
Yes. Chiitoitsu (seven pairs) is always a flat 25 fu, and uniquely it is never rounded up to 30. No other fu is added — not the closed ron bonus, not the tsumo bonus, not wait fu. Combined with its fixed 2 han, a closed chiitoitsu ron scores 1,600 points for a non-dealer.
Do chows give fu?+
No. Chows (sequences) are always worth 0 fu, whether open or closed. Fu from sets comes only from pungs (triplets) and kans (quads), which scale by whether they are open or closed and whether they use simples or terminals/honors — from 2 fu for an open pung of simples up to 32 fu for a closed kan of terminals or honors.