Crafting a Bone and Bamboo Mahjong Set
In the early days of mahjong in the mid-19th Century, bone and bamboo tiles were manufactured by a whole village working together. One household would specialize in sawing the planks of bamboo, another would specialize in painting characters on the tiles, and so on.
When the mahjong craze of the 1920's broke out in America, China quickly ran out of cow bones and the demand for thousands of mahjong sets became too much for small villages to handle. So bones were imported from slaughterhouses in Chicago and mahjong tile production moved to large factories in Shanghai.
These days, while most mahjong tiles are made out of fiberglass and melamine, production of traditional bone and bamboo tiles has shifted back to the villages. As in the past, each household has a specialty, and the production methods are basically unchanged from 150 years ago. In the town, a great number of households are involved in manufacturing mahjong sets. One household will cut the bone and bamboo, another shapes the tiles, another specialized in painting, and so on.
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It all starts with a pile of cattle bones. They look like soup bones.
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The bones are put into these huge wooden casks and boiled until all the fats, oils, and impurities are cooked away.
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Each bones is carefully split into sections roughly the size of a mahjong tile.
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The excess shavings are saved for use in other crafts.
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The bamboo pieces are prepared for dovetailing. Each piece will be notched so that it will fit together perfectly with the bone piece.
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Ready for dovetailing!
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The bamboo back side is similarly broken and sanded down.
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They are then filed with a groove for the dovetail to fit in.
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Ready to be dried and aged.
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Sorting out the tiles.
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Sunbathing! This gives the tiles a nice aged look.
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Getting some more sun. There are frogs croaking in the creek.
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The artist workshop where the etching and fine painting is done.
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A template mold for the "Water Margin" mahjong set. The molds are about twenty times the size of an actual mahjong tile, so that the artist can achieve the correct level of detail.
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An East wind mold.
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Each mold is individually traced onto the tiles.
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The etching takes patience and steady hands!
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One tile at a time.
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Afterwards the master artisan paints the finer tiles...
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One color at a time...
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Until they look like this!
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The junior artists paint the more simpler tiles.
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Each tile gets special attention.
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Working from home has its benefits...
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Sister stops by to chat.
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The other younger siblings watch TV and play games in the adjacent room.
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When the paint dries and your mahjong tiles are ready!