05/20/2026
Why is the One Bamboo a bird when every other bamboo tile is just a stack of sticks?
There are actually multiple theories. The most practical one: if the one bamboo looked like one plain vertical line, cheaters could draw an extra line and turn it into a two bamboo. Making it visually distinct was an anti-counterfeiting measure built directly into the tile design.
But there’s also a folk theory about mayflies, and a separate one about the word “mahjong” itself meaning sparrow in Cantonese.
No single definitive answer after 700 years. Which honestly makes it the most interesting tile in the whole set.
(For why the three suits exist at all, see my last reel on Dots, Bamboos and Characters.)
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