Furiten フリテン
Short answer: furiten means you may not win by ron while any tile that completes your hand is in your own discards, or right after you pass up a ron, though you can still win by tsumo.
The most-asked-about rule in riichi, by a wide margin. One sentence covers it: if any tile that completes your hand is in your own discards, you cannot win by ron — on anything. The rest of this page makes that sentence feel fair. (Rules here follow WRC 2025; this is one of the areas where major rulesets agree.)
The basic case
You discarded a tile earlier that you now need. The game's position: you told the table that tile was safe to you. Opponents were entitled to rely on it. So you may not punish a player for discarding it back — but you may still draw it yourself. Furiten never blocks tsumo.
The case that feels unfair
Your wait is 5s and 8s (a two-sided wait). An 8s is in your discards. An opponent drops the 5s — the tile you never discarded — and you still cannot ron it.
Furiten applies to the whole wait, not the tile. If any one tile of your wait is in your discards, ron is blocked on every tile of that wait. Without this, players could safely discard part of their own wait to trap opponents. The rule is what makes discards readable — and reading discards is the entire defensive game of riichi.
Three flavors of furiten
| Type | Trigger | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Discard furiten | A tile of your current wait is in your own discards | While that wait stands — change the wait, clear the furiten |
| Temporary furiten | You decline (or miss) a ron on a tile in your wait | Until your next turn — your next draw and discard |
| Riichi furiten | Any ron passed up after declaring riichi | The rest of the hand. Tsumo still wins — but no ron, on any tile, ever again this hand |
What to do about it
- Before riichi: check your own discards against your wait — every time. If you are furiten, reshape the hand toward a clean wait before locking it.
- While furiten: you can still win by tsumo — and yes, you may even declare riichi while furiten (riichi only requires closed tenpai). Since riichi locks the wait, that means committing to tsumo-only; with many winning tiles it is sometimes a deliberate, advanced play. As a beginner: reshape the hand instead.
- On defense: furiten is your shield. A tile an opponent has discarded is 100% safe against that player's ron — it says nothing about the other two players, and nothing stops their tsumo. This fact, called genbutsu, is still the foundation of all riichi defense.
Worked example: getting out of furiten
Early in the hand you discarded an 8s. Several turns later you reach tenpai with 234m, 567m, 456p, an 88p pair, and 67s — an all-simples (tanyao) hand with a two-sided wait on 5s or 8s. The 8s in your discards makes the whole wait furiten: an opponent's 5s is not yours to ron.
Next turn you draw a 4s. Discard the 7s instead of the 4s, and the hand becomes 46s, waiting only on the 5s:
The new wait is not furiten, and the hand still has tanyao as its yaku, so any player's 5s is now a ron. You traded a two-sided wait for a single tile, though; two-sided waits usually win more often, which is why riichi on a furiten two-sided wait is sometimes chosen anyway.
Common mistakes
- Checking only the tile you want. Furiten looks at every tile of your wait. One of them in your discards blocks ron on all of them.
- Forgetting called tiles. A discard that an opponent claimed with chii or pon still counts as yours for furiten, even though it has left your discard row.
- Letting a ron pass "for a better tile". You are then furiten until your next turn; after riichi, for the rest of the hand.
- Looking at other players' discards. Only your own discards and passed rons make you furiten.
Related: ron and tsumo, genbutsu, and chinitsu, where furiten is easy to miss.
Next: Lesson 8 — your first game, where rounds, dealership, and all these rules run at full speed.