Tag Archives: black bamboo mahjong

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Oftentimes black bamboo sets have more unusual designs than found on other tiles. This one is no exception. Given the very great challenge of carving such a hard surface as bamboo, the carver did a wonderful job. To make black bamboo mahjong tiles, the bamboo is first dyed, then carved and painted. The black background makes the colors pop.

DSC_0733 one dot

The One Dot makes it a stand-out, with its very delicately carved flower center, with other Dots the circles within circles. The bird is referred to as a darting sparrow by Michael Stanwick. The other Bams are simple rods, and the Craks the simple Wan. Artists working on these black sets handle the colors of the numbers and the suits differently, as can be seen on Stanwick's site as well. The colors here, orange, blue, red and white and the Bam shapes are different from the Black Bamboo set discussed in January. To see that set click here

Stanwick has a few sets with similar One Bams on his website:

http://themahjongtileset.co.uk/tile-set-diversity/tile-set-diversity-2-0/ 

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The Winds, Dragons and Flowers are delightful too. The White Dragon is a blank black tile, the  Green is White, and the Red is red. The Flowers on the right are plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, the four gentlemen.

To read more about the Four Gentlemen in wikipedia, click here.

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april 30, 2012 my collection 004 (1)

This is a lovely example of hand-carved black bamboo tiles. Bamboo was one of the most used materials in the early days of Mahjong, because it was available and very inexpensive. Some think it was the first material ever used for the game of Mahjong in the late 1800s, in the first days when money-based suits were carved onto tiles. The real challenge of bamboo lies with its hard nature; it is very difficult to carve. The bamboo seen here was dyed black and then carved by skilled craftsmen. The black background added real "pop" to the designs. The soaring bird One Bam is charming, and the other Bams are based on the "string of cash" and have pointed tips. The Dots go from the flower One Dot to rings of circles on the other tiles, and the Craks are the simple wan.

The order and appearance of the Flowers is interesting if I am interpreting it correctly. The flowers are plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, the Four Gentlemen, but the plum blossom seems to be missing an outside petal. Also, Chinese seasons tend to begin in spring, which here is tile #2 (orchid).