WAIMEA — On most Thursday mornings, many of the Waimea Senior Club members can be found seated around mahjong tables in focused concentration.
It all started in 2005 when the Waimea club visited the Kona seniors who taught them how to play.
“They started coming here and we started going there for about six months,” said Pat Lewi, club president.
It’s 9 a.m. at the senior club and all the tables are ready with a set of tiles and four tile racks. Each table has a different color butterfly in the middle, and Masako Nitta passes around a bag for members to choose a ball whose color determines which table they will play at that day.
“It’s random so we don’t say, ‘Oh I pick you and you.’ You don’t have to go home feeling hurt. The Waimea club has a heck of a lot of aloha,” said Liz Montague, who travels from Hawi to play.
“I’ve been coming for two or three years. After my brain surgery, it was a way to learn. It’s good for the math and the strategies. We wanted to get it going in Kohala so three of us came to learn how to play and I was the only survivor,” she said.
The origins of the game are a bit of a mystery. Some place the beginning in the time of Confucius. The story goes that during the reign of the King of Wu, a beautiful woman in the court who was dying of boredom began carving tiles out of ivory and bamboo and then invited her maids to play a game. The game is supposed to then have evolved into mahjong when Confucius expanded it and added more rules.
But the first records of the game place its origins in the Qing Dynasty, which is the most likely scenario. It became a popular gambling game that spread throughout Asia.
Today, seniors just play for fun.
“We had a policewoman here checking on us because they thought we were gambling,” said Elaine Loo, who grew up in Kaimuki, on Oahu.
“When I was a young girl in Honolulu, I’d see these pake men on River Street, sitting cross-legged, playing and smoking. And I wondered what they were doing,” she recalled.
Mahjong is a bit like gin rummy with many added nuances. Scoring is complex.
“Counting the points is the hard part. Sharon (Higuchi) created this chart that has all the points on it so all we have to do is to look at it if we have a question,” said Milo Ferreira of Honokaa.
Each person starts out with a plastic container of chips worth 10,000 points. When the hand is done, everyone counts up and chips are paid and collected from each other. There is an option to contribute $5 to the pot and at the end of every three months, the high scorers receive gift certificates from local stores.
Mahjong spread to Japan and then 10 years later, in 1920, to America where its popularity grew, creating many cross-cultural connections. This is reflected in the Waimea mahjong players who come from different backgrounds and experiences.
Needing to make a life change, Dolly Baquiran moved to Paauilo from Waimanalo on Oahu in 1995 and now makes mahjong a regular part of her week.
“You leave your problems and worries at home and we always have fun,” she said.
Netta Branco from Ahualoa spent her childhood on Maui.
“I grew up playing mahjong on Maui. My mom and dad used to play with this Chinese family. All my other days (during the week) are taken, but this day is mine,” she said.
Joining the senior club last January, Ferreira is the newest member and very happy to finally get to play.
“I played years ago and then we stopped playing. Then my sister-in-law started playing and she came up here. She taught me to play again but I had to wait to join. They kept telling me, ‘Not until January. Wait until January,’” she recalled.
Bob Boyer and his wife, D’Arcie Beytebiere, started playing mahjong at the recommendation of their son.
“My son married a girl last year whose family plays mahjong and my son and daughter-in-law were telling us what a great game it is. Tamara (Purdy) came down to Wednesday quilting at NHERC and taught mahjong and then we started coming here about a year ago,” said Boyer.
The play is a combination of luck and strategy.
“It’s mostly luck but as you get to know the game you can read what’s down there (discards) and guess what’s in the other person’s hand. Also, you need to keep your options open. You want to have two rather than one option,” explained Diane Imada, a retired Paauilo School teacher, who learned to play mahjong while attending school at U.H. Manoa.
The air is punctuated by laughter and rather than competition, there is a sense of cooperation and playing the game well together.
“It relaxes your mind. You come here and really enjoy yourself and then I go home and I’m so tired I take a nap,” said June Coelho of Waimea, who has been playing for about eight years.
At 11 a.m. the players break for a potluck lunch that last week included homemade smoked pork, salad, sushi and dumplings. Everyone eats at their table and continues playing until about 1:30 p.m.
“It’s a day when I don’t think of anything else,” said Susan Akeo, who grew up watching her mother play mahjong.
“I like the socializing and keeping my brain going,” Nitta concluded.