This is the video ad for the Japanese Mahjong Museum on the Japanese PS2 mahjong (Real 4 player mahjong, not solitaire) game called Maajan Taikai 3. The mahjong tiles had their origins from Matiao cards, used to play a trick taking game. The earliest reference to Matiao cards in Japan was recorded in a compilation called Keirin Manroku, in which a few cards where discovered in Boso Peninsula (Chiba prefecture) during the Edo period. Over time, the Matiao cards developed into decks of 60/120 Zhi Pai/ Shihai (lit: paper cards) which were used to play a rummy like game even more closely related to today's mahjong.
The Japanese Mahjong Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to various mahjong paraphernalia collected in the past 150 years or so: mahjong sets of all kind, clothing, intricate/useless objects for the actual game, mahjong furniture, rule books in many languages, photos, paintings etc etc.
I have never visited the museum yet, but I'd like to in the future. The address and phone number of the JMM is:
Japan Mahjong Museum
Misaki Nakahara 1-2, Isumi
Chiba, 299-4502
Phone number 0470 (87) 8886
I used my digital camera to film this (no video camera) and the BGM is a bit loud, so sorry about that.