Chinroutou (清老頭)
13 han
All terminals.
Example winning hand
Winning tile: 9s
How Chinroutou (清老頭) works
All terminals — every tile in the hand is a 1 or a 9, built entirely from terminal triplets and a terminal pair.
Chinroutou allows only the 1 and 9 of each suit, with no honors and no middle tiles, so the hand is necessarily all triplets (or kans) plus a pair. It can be open or closed since the structure forces triplets regardless. It is effectively a stricter, terminals-only subset of toitoi and honroutou and ranks among the top-tier hands.
Good to know
- •Only terminal numbers (1 and 9) are permitted; honors are not allowed, unlike honroutou.
- •The hand is inherently all triplets and a pair, so it overlaps with toitoi by construction.
- •Open and closed hands both qualify for this pattern.
Chinroutou (清老頭) — FAQ
Can chinroutou include honor tiles?
No. Adding any wind or dragon makes it honroutou instead; chinroutou is purely 1s and 9s.
Why is chinroutou always made of triplets?
With only terminals available, no sequences can form, so every set must be a triplet or kan plus a pair.
Other 13-han yaku