Chinitsu

Chinitsu

Chinitsu (清一色, チンイツ) is a high-value yaku where your entire hand consists of tiles from only one suit—characters, bamboo, or dots—with no honors whatsoever. Worth 6 han when closed or 5 han when open, chinitsu is one of the most powerful non-yakuman hands in riichi mahjong.

Detailed Explanation

Requirements

To achieve chinitsu, every tile in your 14-tile hand must be from a single suit. No winds, no dragons, no mixing of suits. For example, a chinitsu hand might contain:

• 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9 bamboo with pairs and sequences entirely in bamboo
• All characters from 1-char to 9-char in various combinations
• Pure dots with no other tile types

Han Value

Closed hand: 6 han Open hand: 5 han

Even when opened, chinitsu remains powerful at 5 han—enough to guarantee mangan or higher with minimal additional value. This makes chinitsu viable for both speed play (calling melds) and closed-hand strategies.

Comparison to Honitsu

Chinitsu is the strict version of honitsu (half flush). Honitsu allows honor tiles alongside one suit and is worth 3 han (closed) or 2 han (open). The trade-off:

• Honitsu: Easier to form, lower value, can use yakuhai dragons/winds for easy han
• Chinitsu: Harder to form, double the han value, no honor flexibility

Many hands start as honitsu attempts and upgrade to chinitsu if honor tiles never materialize, or downgrade to honitsu if honors are drawn.

Strategic Considerations

Tile Efficiency: Chinitsu hands have reduced tile variety—you’re drawing from only 27-36 tiles (one suit’s tiles) instead of the full 136-tile set. This makes waits harder to fill and dead draws more common.

Telegraph Risk: Calling tiles of a single suit immediately signals chinitsu to opponents. Experienced players will avoid discarding your suit, making hand completion difficult in open play.

Pair Up with Other Yaku: Because chinitsu provides substantial han on its own, it often pairs with simpler yaku like pinfu, tanyao, or ittsu to push into baiman or sanbaiman territory.

Usage Example

You’re dealt a starting hand heavy in bamboo tiles. You commit early to chinitsu, discarding all characters, dots, and honors. You call pon on 5-bamboo and chi on a 7-bamboo discard to complete 7-8-9 bamboo. Your final hand: triplets of 5-bamboo, sequences of 2-3-4 and 7-8-9 bamboo, and a pair of 6-bamboo. Since you called melds, you score chinitsu at 5 han. If your hand also has tanyao (all simples), you’ve achieved 6 total han—baiman level.

Related Terms

Honitsu: Half flush—one suit plus honor tiles. Worth 3 han (closed) or 2 han (open). Often a fallback when chinitsu doesn’t develop.

Ittsu: Pure straight (123-456-789 in one suit). Worth 2 han closed or 1 han open. Can stack with chinitsu for massive value.

Sanshoku Doujun: Three-colored sequences. Incompatible with chinitsu since chinitsu requires only one suit.

Tanyao: All simples (2-8 tiles). Compatible with chinitsu when your pure flush avoids 1s and 9s.