# Chinroutou — Riichi Mahjong Glossary

> All terminals - a yakuman where your entire hand consists only of 1s and 9s. No simples or honors.

**Source:** https://www.mahjongmaster.co/learn/riichi/glossary/chinroutou/
**Author:** Kenji Tanaka (https://www.mahjongmaster.co/about/kenji-tanaka/)
**Publisher:** Mahjong Master (https://www.mahjongmaster.co)
**Published:** 2026-02-18
**Updated:** 2026-03-10
**Japanese:** 清老頭
**Category:** hand-structure
**Variant:** riichi

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## Chinroutou

**Chinroutou** (清老頭, ちんろーとう) is a yakuman where your entire 14-tile hand consists solely of terminal tiles, the 1s and 9s of each suit. No simples (2-8) or honor tiles (winds/dragons) are allowed. The name translates to "all terminals" or "pure terminals."

## The mechanics of Chinroutou

### Requirements

To achieve chinroutou, all 14 tiles must be terminals:
- **1-man, 1-pin, 1-sou** (the three 1-tiles)
- **9-man, 9-pin, 9-sou** (the three 9-tiles)
- **No other tiles**: Cannot contain simples (2-8) or honors

Since there are only six different terminal tile types and terminals cannot form middle sequences, chinroutou hands always consist of:
- Four triplets of terminals (e.g., 1-1-1, 9-9-9)
- One pair of terminals

### Extreme Rarity

Chinroutou is one of the rarest yakuman because:
- **Limited tiles**: Only 24 terminal tiles exist in the set (four each of six types)
- **Triplet requirement**: Terminals cannot form sequences like 1-2-3 or 7-8-9 when restricted to 1s and 9s only, so you must form triplets
- **Toitoi structure**: Since all melds must be triplets, you need four triplets from just six tile types, statistically very difficult

Many experienced players have never achieved chinroutou despite thousands of hands.

### Strategic Considerations

**Toitoi Requirement**: Chinroutou always includes toitoi (all triplets) since terminals at extremes cannot form sequences. Yakuman overrides toitoi, so you score only yakuman.

**Open-Friendly**: Like other yakuman, chinroutou maintains full yakuman value when open. You can call pon on terminal discards without penalty.

**Honroutou Foundation**: If your hand contains honors alongside terminals, it becomes honroutou (terminals and honors only) worth 2 han instead of yakuman. Chinroutou is the pure, no-honors version of honroutou.

### Comparison to Similar Yaku

**Chinroutou** (all terminals): Yakuman
**Honroutou** (terminals + honors): 2 han, not yakuman
**Junchan** (terminals in every meld): 3 han (closed) or 2 han (open), allows simples

Chinroutou is the strictest and most valuable of these terminal-focused patterns.

## Example: Chinroutou in a real hand

You draw several 1s and 9s early and commit to chinroutou. You call pon on 1-bamboo and 9-characters. Later, you self-draw triplets of 9-dots and 1-characters. Your final hand: 1-1-1 bamboo, 1-1-1 characters, 9-9-9 characters, 9-9-9 dots (four terminal triplets), plus a pair of 9-bamboo or 1-dots. No simples, no honors, pure terminals. When you win, you declare **chinroutou** (yakuman), scoring 32,000 points as a non-dealer or 48,000 points as the dealer (yakuman base value of 8,000).

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*This content is from [Mahjong Master](https://www.mahjongmaster.co), a free educational reference for riichi (Japanese) and American (NMJL) mahjong. When citing this page, please link to https://www.mahjongmaster.co/learn/riichi/glossary/chinroutou/.*