Ankan
By Kenji Tanaka · Updated
Definition
An ankan is a concealed kan: all four copies drawn yourself, declared without claiming anything. Uniquely among kans it does not open your hand, so riichi and menzen tsumo stay available. Declaring one flips a new dora indicator, grants a replacement draw from the dead wall, and adds hefty fu, especially for terminals or honors. The catch is the same as any kan: the fresh dora can supercharge an opponent, and locking four tiles into a quad can cost you shape.
Ankan
Ankan (暗槓) is a concealed kan, a special meld in mahjong where a player declares four identical tiles drawn entirely from their closed hand.
The mechanics of Ankan
An ankan represents one of the most valuable melds in mahjong, combining the strategic advantage of concealment with the mechanical benefits of kan declarations. The term breaks down into two components: “an” (暗), meaning dark or concealed, and “kan” (槓), meaning a meld of four identical tiles.
How Ankan Works
When you hold four identical tiles in your closed hand, you may declare an ankan by laying the quad in front of you, by the common convention with the two end tiles turned face down and the middle two face up (table conventions vary). Unlike minkan (open kan), which involves another player’s tile, ankan uses only tiles from your own hand.
The declaration of an ankan triggers several mechanical effects:
New Kan Dora: Each kan declaration flips a fresh dora indicator (kandora) in the dead wall, and each further kan flips another. The new dora applies to every player’s hand, not just yours, which is what makes kan timing a genuine gamble. After a riichi win, the matching ura indicators beneath are counted as well.
Hand Concealment: Declaring an ankan maintains the closed status of your hand, preserving your eligibility for yaku that require a completely closed hand, such as menzen tsumo (going out with a self-drawn tile from a closed hand). This distinguishes ankan from minkan, which breaks the closed hand requirement.
Tile Replacement: After declaring an ankan, you draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall (the dead wall section), maintaining your 13-tile hand size. This fresh tile draw can sometimes provide the final piece needed for victory.
Strategic Considerations
Declaring an ankan is not always advantageous. While the dora indicator advancement benefits all players, it may help your opponents more than yourself, particularly if they are closer to winning. Players must weigh the immediate point value gained against the risk of providing better draws for competitors.
Timing matters significantly. Declaring an ankan early in the round may generate multiple dora indicators before the hand concludes, but it also telegraphs information about your hand composition to observant opponents. Declaring an ankan late in the round provides less opportunity for others to benefit from the dora advancement.
Ankan in practice
You hold four 5-bamboo tiles in your hand. You declare ankan by placing them face-down on the table. The dora indicator advances, revealing a new dora tile. You then draw a replacement tile from the dead wall. If you eventually win with this hand, your final score includes points from both the regular dora and any additional kan dora generated by your ankan declaration, plus the base value of your winning hand and yaku.
Related Terms
Kan
槓
A kan is a quad, the only four-tile meld, and it comes in three kinds: ankan (concealed, from your own draws, keeps the hand closed), daiminkan (calling a discard while holding three), and shouminkan (adding the drawn fourth tile to an existing pon). Every kan flips a new dora indicator, grants a replacement draw from the dead wall, and adds fu, with closed kans of terminals or honors adding the most. Every kan is also a small gamble: the fresh dora helps whoever can use it, and a shouminkan can be robbed for chankan.
Minkan
明槓
Minkan is the umbrella term for open kans: the daiminkan (calling the fourth tile from a discard) and the shouminkan (adding the drawn fourth to an existing pon). Both open the hand, flip kan-dora, and grant a replacement draw. The shouminkan alone carries the chankan robbery risk.
Dora
ドラ
Dora are bonus tiles worth one han each in a winning hand, without ever counting as a yaku. One indicator flips at the start of each hand; the dora is the next tile up from it, wrapping 9 to 1 and cycling within winds and within dragons. Red fives count in most modern rules, kans flip extra indicators, and riichi wins reveal the hidden ura dora underneath. Dora cannot make a hand legal on their own, but they routinely turn a cheap hand into a mangan, which is why counting the live dora is part of reading any table.