The History Of Mahjong In The Japanese

During the Tongzhi years of the Qing Dynasty, mahjong was born in China and was introduced to Japan around the end of the Meiji period. In 1947 after World War II, the Japanese Mahjong Federation was established. In the 1970s, a mahjong trend gradually formed in society. Later, because Mahjong always gave people bad impressions such as gambling, staying up late, smoking, etc., the Japanese Health Mahjong Association came into being in 1988, advocating playing healthy mahjong and using mahjong to promote wisdom instead of damaging physical and mental health.

According to research by Japanese scholars, Japanese people first realized that Mahjong was brought back from Sichuan in 1909 by Japanese English teacher "Makikawa". Ming Chuan Yan Zuo graduated from the English Department of the University of Tokyo. The well-known writer "Natsume Soseki" also served as his instructor. After graduation, Ming Chuan went to Sichuan, China as an English teacher to teach. During this period, he became interested in Mahjong. .

When Mingchuan returned to China, he brought along a pair of mahjong, and then taught the rules and gameplay to students when he was a tutor in Japanese high school. In the same year, Natsume Soseki also mentioned mahjong in his published novels. Mahjong started from this time. Rooted and sprouted in the island country, it has become a popular entertainment activity for all ages.

In 1985, there were a large number of Mahjong comics on the market, because after the war, Japan was a waste of life, materials were scarce, and any entertainment projects were difficult to develop. Mahjong became the first choice. It is said that at its peak, one-sixth of Japan's population is playing mahjong, and it can be imagined how popular mahjong culture is in Japan.

In recent years, Japan has been outstanding in popularizing the Mahjong movement. The frequent and regulated competition organization in Japan provides players with a lot of opportunities for actual competition in regular competitions. On the other hand, Japan ’s promotion of mahjong is far better than that of China.

Japan also has professional mahjong textbooks, starting from the basics; there are professional mahjong cultural books, such as mahjong history books, introducing different masters and different styles of play in various periods, and resuming various classic battles.

There are even professional children's mahjong classrooms where you can learn mahjong from the age of 4; while adults have formed mahjong into a skill, similar to Go and Chess, and formed a variety of technical warfare methods, which are regularly studied and discussed.

According to a statistic, there are about 7.6 million mahjong players in Japan, and there are 8,900 mahjong halls in the country. Japan is also the first country to invent the mahjong machine and mahjong game. The famous cartoonist Fukumoto ’s "Fighting Legend" with the theme of mahjong is extremely popular in Japan, which has nurtured a large number of Japanese youths on the road of mahjong players.

There are many professional tournaments in Japan. There are nine levels of mahjong leagues. The highest-level star players are very rich in event bonuses. The history of professional mahjong tournaments in Japan is much longer than that of international mahjong competitions. There are many rules that borrow from Japanese mahjong. The polishing of long-term professional events is also an important factor for such a powerful Japanese mahjong.

One of the four most influential leagues in Japan is the throne battle, the other three are the Phoenix battle, the ten stage battle and the sparrow masters. The following are the grand prix, the female league professional league cherry blossom battle, the professional queen decision battle, the championship league , Newcomer king, and sparrow Japan Championship.

In 2019, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan formed a "Sports Mahjong Council of Representatives" to bring Japanese mahjong to the Olympic Games into the formal discussion. In order to promote this development, even the Liberal Democratic Party has also brought in the currently popular "walking hormone" male star Saito Kogyo, which is very popular for women, and even organized members of Parliament to watch the mahjong movie to be released soon. To gain support from more people.

Many lawmakers have said that Mahjong is a good sport. Compared with various online games, gambling games, billiards games, etc., Mahjong has a positive effect on the brain.

It is worth mentioning that Japan has also developed many Mahjong-related games, which are popular among young people and played a role in popularizing Mahjong.