bird and creature Flowers

Wonderful Version of the Travel Size Bone and Bamboo Sets • 2 Comments

Kuan Yin • February 3, 2019

Many of you know that the smaller hand-carved bone and bamboo sets are starting to be appreciated the way they should be. I gave myself one of them for Christmas years ago (I fell for the horse Jokers) and the set connected me with a collector (now friend) who helped me develop my expertise about mahjong sets and Chinese art. So I really have a fondness for these little treasures.

A reader sent me photos of his set, and I must admit I had not seen one like this before. I am sharing it with you now.

The One Bam peacocks are fabulous, aren't they? The Flowers are a Dragon (half hidden in the cloud (the pink), probably looking for his pearl which I can't see, a tiger (lord of all the land animals), a deer (emblem of long life) and a goldfish. When the tiger and the Dragon meet, the two great forces of the universe are together (from C.A. S. Williams) The bottom tiles, 1 and 2 are Liu Hai and the three legged toad.

And isn't that Goose Joker the best? According to C.A.S. Williams, the wild goose is the harbinger of good news-how perfect for a Joker!

Happy 2016

Kuan Yin • January 1, 2016

Friend and blog reader Cari took this lovely photo the other day of the National Mah Jongg League's 2015 hand. It calls for 2 Flowers, followed by the year repeated three times in the three suits. In all hands calling for a zero, the White Dragon is used. What is wonderful about this hand is that many of the most special tiles, the Ones, and the Flowers are used, and often the White Dragon is quite lovely too.

So, I thought it would be fun to celebrate 2016 showing the great variety of styles and images on Mahjong sets. A big thanks to the readers who took photos and sent them in, including Barney, Tracy, Geraldine, Debra, Gail and Cari, as well as the others. We have a delightful array of sets, showing the great variety of ways designers and craftsmen have added beauty to this fabulous game, ranging from paper cards, to wood, to bakelite, Chinese Bakelite, bone and bamboo, and mother-of-pearl. All of these sets are treasured by their owners, and all have brought great happiness to the players around the table. What better way to celebrate the new year than by looking at art that has made people happy?

A mass-produced and highly collectible Chinese Bakelite set with unusual Flowers and Bams

A Lung Chan set, with two tone (blue) backs. Lung Chan features a suite of bird Flowers.

The tiles in the middle feature mother-of-pearl faces set in wood

Delightful Bone and Bamboo set with animal Flowers

from back to front: Waterbury Button Company, Marke Pehafra, rare Chinese Bakelite two-tone pillow-top set

The following eight contributions belong to one collector:

children's Royal Depth Control traveling set

TYL two-tone Bakelite set from the 1940s (backs are chocolate-brown)

Beautiful Thick Bone and Bamboo tiles, Peach (longevity) Dots with One Dot encircling a coiled Dragon, different longevity symbols on Craks with Bank-style Chinese numbers, Bamboo shoot Bams with hovering hawk symbolizing China's strength

Chinese Game Company with special Dragons

The wonderful variety of mahjong sets, including paper cards, wood, and Portland Billiard Company (the first set behind the front cards)

beautiful sloping circles, label unknown

Red MJ — highly carved set featuring crane (longevity) Dots, peacock Bams, and Craks with bats (longevity and prosperity) on the sides

Magnificent Bone and Bamboo set with lacquer box

Here's a close-up of the Craks suit from this hand. If you look carefully, you can see peaches on the top and bottom. Peaches are symbols of longevity in China. And on the left and right there are bats, also symbols of longevity, but because of the way the Chinese word for bat is pronounced, the bat also symbolizes prosperity. Dragonflies, seen on the White Dragon, represent pureness of character according to Confucian ideals.

So let us hope that 2016 is a year of longevity, prosperity, and pureness of character.

2016 in Mahjong tiles

Kuan Yin • December 28, 2015

Recently a friend took a beautiful photo of mahjong tiles "spelling out" 2016, in the NMJL way of play which asks for 2 Flowers, followed by 2 1 and 6 of each suit , allowing the White Dragon to serve as zero. (In The National Mah Jongg League way of play the White Dragon is the zero when "spelling" out the year.) It is a wonderful "hand" showing some of the best tiles in each set.

I thought it would be fun to have readers send in their favorite sets "spelling" this out too. So, if you can, please take photos starting with 2 Flowers, then the Dots, Bams and Craks, and email them in to me.They will be part of the New Year's Mahjong Treasures post. I will not share your identity unless you want me to. If there is a story to the set, I'd love for you to share it with me and I will include it here as well as on the facebook group Mahjong Memories. Please become a member of that group if you like.

The top set is a lovely Chinese bakelite one, with beautiful unusual Flowers, the One Bam hawk over the globe, and the frame White Dragon. The One Bams resemble both golf tees and flat-head screws.

The bottom set is Lung Chan, known for its lovely suite of bird Flowers, two of which are seen here. The tiles are two-tone with a lovely blue on the bottom.

Mahjong is “for the Birds” Part 1

Kuan Yin • December 25, 2015

If anyone tells you "Mahjong is for the birds," you might respond "How right you are! Mahjong is and has always been about the birds." The game was named the game of sparrows, because of the noise of the tiles on the table. And, almost from the beginning, designers and carvers knew that beautiful bird One Bams could be the selling point for sets. That is why only the best carvers made the One Bams, and the Flowers. The workshop that produced this bone and bamboo Mahjong set certainly had very skilled carvers. The suits are elaborate, with a somewhat simple flying peacock One Bam.

But oh, these Flowers:

One of my friends is a serious birder, and she helped with some of the bird identifications, although she said that some liberties had been taken with the renderings. But here are what she thinks the birds are:

top row

#3 parrot

#2 heron, ibis or stork

bottom:

#1 dollar bird or hawk based on flat head and the way it is sitting

Anyone else have any ideas?

There's a new ebook with this title, Mahjong is for the Birds, one that helps people to identify vintage plastic sets and get an understanding about their relative value. You can find it at www.mahjongmahjong.com

Sea Creatures in Mahjong and Tile Games Part 2

Kuan Yin • November 24, 2014

I thought it might be fun to really get a good look at some of the marvelous treasures that were in the Japanese Mahjong Museum. For those of you who don't know, the Museum was founded in 2002 by a Japanese publisher, Mr. Kyouitirou Noguchi, and its collection was the finest in the world. Soon after Mr Noguchi died, the collection was sold. We all have high hopes it can once more be put on display for everyone to enjoy and study.

In the meantime, there are two wonderful catalogs of the collection. The photographs are extraordinary. The sets run the gamut from those made of paper to ones made of cloisonné, and silver. The catalogs themselves have become collectibles. The set today is on page 14 of the soft cover catalog.

The game is called "The Officials Promotion Tiles" and it closely resembles some of the variants of the suits we see in Mahjong. Although not technically Mahjong, the set is very similar to what we have been seeing. And it's really pretty to look at!! The color palette is unusual, with the addition of the gold paint, and the blue is a lovely shade.

Carp have great meaning to the Chinese.

From Primaltrek.com

"The carp fish is a commonly seen visual pun because the Chinese character for carp (li 鲤) is pronounced the same as both the character (li 利) for "profit" and the character (li 力) for "strength" or "power".

and

"A frequently seen image is of a carp swimming and leaping against the current of a river to reach the spawning grounds. This refers to the legend (liyutiaolongmen 鲤鱼跳龙门) that a carp which is able to leap over the mythical "Dragon Gate" will become a dragon. This is an allegory for the persistent effort needed to overcome obstacles."

Given that this set is all about Officials getting promotions, certainly the second meaning of the image has its appeal.

These fish were really hard to see as fish at first. But after looking at it for a bit, I was able to make it out. These fish do live in the waters around China. Don't you love the red at the tip of its nose?

The next fish is a bit more common on Mahjong tiles: the goldfish. I think this one has a great bit of spirit! He almost looks like he's smiling.

The goldfish is a symbol for wealth because the way goldfish is pronounced in Chinese. The first syllable is the same as "gold" and the second the same as "jade."

I am not sure what this fish is, but I like his looks!

Finally, from another suite of Flower tiles within the same set

Imagine getting that much personality on a really small turtle on small tile! The tortoise, or the turtle in China, is a symbol of longevity. They also symbolize strength and endurance.

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@MahJonggGregg

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Butterflies in Chinese Art and Mahjong Part 2

Kuan Yin • November 7, 2014

Scroll by Xie Zhiliu from the 1930s, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lovely scroll combines many of the themes we have seen before: flowers, rocks and a butterfly. The flower here is a lotus, a flower much loved by the Chinese.

From Primaltrek:

Because the Buddha is often depicted as seated on a lotus, the lotus is considered a sacred Buddhist symbol (one of Eight Auspicious Symbols) representing purity and detachment from worldly cares.

The lotus signifies the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

The Chinese word for lotus is lianhua (莲花) or hehua (荷花). Lian is also the pronunciation of the word for continuous (连) and he is also the pronunciation for the word harmony (和) so the lotus has the hidden meaning of "continuous harmony".

A lotus stem and lotus pod shown together symbolize marital harmony and sexual union.

Lotus seeds (lianzi 莲籽) have the hidden meaning of "continuous birth of children" because the lian sounds like "continuous" (连) and the zi has the same pronunciation as the word for son or child (zi 子).

Examples of lotus charms can be seen at Open Work Charms, Pendant Charms, Lock Charms, Marriage Charms, and Boy Charms.

And I thought you'd enjoy this scene of children flying a kite shaped like a butterfly, found on Quan Dong's auction website:

Certainly butterflies play an important role in Chinese life, in art and in play.

As we mentioned in the last post, butterflies are symbols of long life, joy and warmth (Primaltrek)

These delightful creatures often appear on mahjong tiles, but sometimes you have to look really carefully:

Butterflies appear at the corners of the tile

In the tile above, the butterflies form the frame around the Crak. Who says Craks have to be boring? I also love the way the number 1 is worked into the side of the "frame" instead of the top where it would interfere with the butterflies.

four split Mahjong flower pots with butterfly

These tiles are examples of the split flower pots we often see, each half of the pot being a bit different from one another, with various plants in each. Because the Chinese often liked to have living creatures in their art, a butterfly can be seen on the bottom left set, the right tile. The butterfly is so well hidden it almost fades into the floral arrangement, doesn't it?

To learn more about Mahjong's art, you might like to consider this purchase:

The book I wrote with Ann Israel is being published by Tuttle. To see more about it:

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

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The Qilin, a Mythical Creature, in Chinese Art and Mahjong • 2 Comments

Kuan Yin • May 9, 2014

Often we see creatures and we have a hard time identifying them; they just don't seem to be any type of animal we are familiar with. One such creature is seen above, a qilin on an official's badge from the Qing Dynasty in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. Because it is horned, it is sometimes referred to as a unicorn.

Welch writes

"The Chinese mythical animal known in Chinese as the qilin is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "Chinese unicorn" or even a chimera (although this is a specific Greek mythological animal with a lion's head, goat's body and serpent's tail) The qilin is not a unicorn as it has two horns and can be identified by its green (or blue) scaled deer's body (which has become more horse-shaped over time) dragon's head, horn and hooves...(and) bushy tail."

We can certainly see the scales, and the hooves on the creature above, as well as the prominent horns. The background shows some ruyi shaped clouds, waves and flames.

According to Welch

"Mythical animals usually have flames surrounding or emanating from their legs to emphasize their powerful and supernatural nature."

The qilin is a benevolent creature, and represents many positive attributes. And qilin sightings are rare, as can be seen by this post.

Qilin appear in Mahjong as well but they might be hidden. We don't have any records or write-ups by the craftsmen who made these works of art, so we really won't know for sure what they are. Sometimes we just have to guess. We'll start with the biggest stretch as to what creature we are seeing.

Above we have a detail of two creatures made of inlaid bone on a Mahjong box. We don't know if they are qilin, but they might be. Behind their ears you can make out another protrusion which may well be a horn. They each have a very bushy tail, just like the one we see on the qilin. If they are a qilin, they certainly are very benevolent.

Above is a detail of a leather embossed Mahjong box. At first I thought that if you looked carefully, you would be able to make out two qilin, on either side of a globe, with flames surrounding them, a scene not unlike the one we just saw on the inlaid box. But a sharp-eyed reader told me these probably are lions, because he was able to see the five toes on their feet! So no qilin here.

But we do have a qilin on another set, actually called the Qilin Mahjong set:

Many of you have probably seen this advertised. You can see the qilin proudly strutting, his bushy tail up and his hooves. I won't make that mistake again! He is surrounded by round ruyi shaped clouds.

Here follows a real treat: an ivory Mahjong tile qilin:

Isn't he fabulous? It is interesting how the crosshatching of the ivory works well with the scales on the qilin.

Our thanks to mahjongmahjong for the use of their tile.

The book I wrote with Ann Israel is being published by Tuttle. To see more about it:

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg

Bamboo in Chinese Art and Mahjong Part 2 • 1 Comment

Kuan Yin • April 15, 2014

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art we have this lovely work of art showing finches and bamboo. The bamboo is strong, growing right out of a rock cliff, yet it has a graceful elegance to it. Bamboo attracts wildlife, and birds often are seen perching and flying between the bamboo stalks.

Above we see some charming hand carved Mahjong Flowers with a bit of a folk art feel to them. Note the top row #3, a bird flying by a stalk of bamboo! You can recognize the triangles facing the left, the Chinese character for bamboo. What is fun about this type of tile is that it is made of bone and bamboo, so bamboo is present twice, front and back.

Bamboo can even appear on a One Bam, complete with its avian friend. Here we see one carved in Chinese Bakelite.

And here again from another bone and bamboo Mahjong set, on tile (you guessed it!) #3.

My book, written with Ann Israel, is coming out! To see about the book:

www.mahjonggtheartofthegame.com

to order the book:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

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The Phoenix in Chinese Art and Mahjong Part 1

Kuan Yin • March 26, 2014

The phoenix, which only appears in times of fair and just rulers, is associated with peaceful and happy times. Patricia Bjaaland Welch's book: Chinese Art A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery is the source for the art information in this post. She writes the phoenix is known in China as the king of the birds, but its origins are complex. Today the phoenix is considered to be a combination of several creatures: the head of a pheasant, the body of a duck, the legs of a crane, the tail feathers of a peacock, the mouth of a parrot and the wings of a sparrow. The female phoenix has a tail with two feathers, and the male has one with five feathers. When a phoenix is paired with another mythological creature, a dragon, the phoenix automatically becomes the female partner.

Most of you are familiar with this symbol that appears on the early sets made by the Mah-Jongg Sales Company of America, that was discussed earlier on this blog. It was simply the Chinese Character for the male phoenix.

Nowadays we call it the Green Dragon, and many of today's players are unaware of this different character that served as the Green at the beginning of the Mahjong craze.

In the earliest days of Chinese art, the phoenix was shown as a striding creature with outstretched wings, up until close to 600 AD, perhaps a bit of a version of this One Bam, though of course this one does not have outstretched wings:

The jaunty attitude of this bird is enchanting.

The next Chinese Bakelite One Bam features another phoenix, posing with leg raised in a similar way to what we often see with peacock One Bams.

The two feathers reveals it to be a female. (It is from the personal collection of mahjongmahjong.)

Later on in time, during the Tang Dynasty the phoenix was depicted in flight, and by the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126) it was shown rising in flight with legs tucked up.

On the above lovely hanging dating from the Song Dynasty in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we see the phoenix on the left; the two feathers indicate a female. Interestingly, the tail does not have the peacock-like look to them we normally see.

A bit later in time we see the above panel dating from the Ming Dynasty in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The phoenix now looks a lot different, and its tail has the more ornate feathers we expect. Look carefully and you will see four phoenixes.

In yesterday's blog we discussed Five Bats which are symbolic of the Five Blessings: old age, wealth, health, love of virtue and a natural death, an image that frequently appears in Chinese art. The rare dish below was auctioned off at Sothebys. Five bats surround a stylized Shou in the center, and although hard to see the "cavetto," the part of the plate surrounding the center flat part, has three phoenixes. Note they only have two tail feathers, and thus are females.

Below is a version of a flying phoenix on a Mahjong tile

It is a female, and she looks it, doesn't she?

Below is the accompanying bird from the same set:

You can see the similarities to the phoenix, but it really is a pheasant, indicated by the feathers that don't resemble those of peacocks.

My book, written with Ann Israel, is coming out! To see about the book:

www.mahjonggtheartofthegame.com

to order the book:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

amazon.com/gp/product/4805313234/ref=s9_newr_gw_d33_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0VDFGYSYF35F849MH93Q&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

Folk Art Bone and Bamboo Mahjong Flowers

Kuan Yin • December 16, 2013

These delightful Mahjong Flowers seem like folk art to me. They are well carved, but the images are very simple. Although it is hard to know exactly what birds and bugs are seen on the tiles, there is a very faintly visible butterfly on the Red 1, more visible on the Red 2. Birds appear on the Blue 1 and 3 and Red 3 and perhaps 4. I must confess, I love the Blue and Red 4s, although I have no idea what insects or creatures they are!