# Ryanshanten — Riichi Mahjong Glossary

> Two tiles away from tenpai. Your hand needs two more useful tiles to reach tenpai (ready to win).

**Source:** https://www.mahjongmaster.co/learn/riichi/glossary/ryanshanten/
**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:** 二向聴
**Category:** hand-structure
**Variant:** riichi

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## Ryanshanten

**Ryanshanten** (両シャンテン) is a hand that is two tiles away from tenpai. Your hand requires two more useful tiles to reach tenpai status and be ready to win.

## The mechanics of Ryanshanten

Ryanshanten represents an intermediate stage in hand development. To understand this term, it's helpful to know the shanten system, which measures how many tiles away your hand is from tenpai (winning ready).

The shanten count works as follows:
- **Tenpai (0 shanten)**: Your hand is one tile away from completion, waiting on its winning tile
- **Iishanten (1 shanten)**: One tile away from tenpai
- **Ryanshanten (2 shanten)**: Two tiles away from tenpai
- **Sanshanten (3 shanten)**: Three tiles away from tenpai

When your hand is ryanshanten, you need to draw and discard two more tiles (in the best-case scenario) before you can reach tenpai. This means you typically have several turns remaining before you can declare a win.

Ryanshanten hands are common in the early to mid-game phases. For example, if you have two complete melds and are working toward a third meld with scattered tiles, you might be in ryanshanten. The hand has structure and direction, but still requires meaningful development.

The key aspect of ryanshanten is **hand efficiency**. Different ryanshanten hands have different qualities. Some hands are "thick" with many useful tiles that can move you toward tenpai, while others are "thin" with fewer options. A thick ryanshanten hand can often reach tenpai within two or three draws, while a thin ryanshanten hand might take longer even if you draw the right tiles.

Strategic decisions in ryanshanten are important. You must decide which tiles to discard to maximize your chances of reaching tenpai quickly while managing your waits and considering the discard pool. Discarding too many tiles that could be useful in multiple melds might leave you with a thin hand that's slow to develop.

## Ryanshanten at the table

Imagine you hold: 2m 3m 4m 5m 6m 9m | 3p 4p 9p | 5s 6s 8s 8s

You have one complete meld (2m-3m-4m), three partial shapes (5m-6m, 3p-4p, 5s-6s), a pair (8s-8s), and two floating tiles (9m and 9p). The hand needs two effective draws before tenpai: complete any two of the partial shapes (say, a 7m and a 2p) while cutting the floaters, and the last partial shape becomes your wait. Needing two useful draws to reach tenpai is exactly what makes this hand ryanshanten.

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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/ryanshanten/.*