380 COMPARATIVE LAW 



Procedure and the Code of Civil Procedure in 1890, the new Civil 

 Code in 1896 and 1898, and the Commercial Code in 1899. 



What I have said above will suffice to show that the new Japanese 

 Civil Code stands in a filial relation to the European systems, and 

 with the introduction of Western civilization, the Japanese civil law 

 passed from the Chinese family to the Roman family of law. 



VI. The Publication of the Code 



One of the most remarkable changes which the introduction of 

 Western jurisprudence produced in Japan was the change in the 

 conception of law. Previous to the Restoration of 1868, there was no 

 idea that publication was essential to law. On the contrary, during the 

 time of the Tokugawa Shogunate, most laws, especially the criminal 

 code, were kept in strict secrecy. They were all in manuscript and were 

 neither allowed to be printed nor published; and none but the judges 

 and officials who were charged with the duty of carrying the rules 

 into effect were allowed the perusal of the codes and the records of 

 judicial precedents. The famous Criminal Code of the Tokugawa 

 Shogunate, commonly known as the " Hyakka-jo," or " The Hundred 

 Articles," bears the following injunction at the end: "The above 

 rules have been. settled with His Highness's gracious sanction, and 

 nobody except the magistrates shall be allowed to peruse them." 



The subsequent compilation, called " Kwajo-rui-ten," contains the 

 same injunction with the following addition: "Moreover, it is for- 

 ever forbidden to make extracts from this code, even of one article 

 thereof." 



In 1841 thirteen authentic manuscript copies of the Code were 

 made, and all the other copies and extracts which the clerks had 

 made for their own use were ordered to be produced and burnt. A 

 certain Ono Gonnojo and his son were severely punished for publish- 

 ing a book which contained the " Hundred Articles " of the Code. An 

 owner of a certain circulating library who had a manuscript book 

 showing the days on which the magistrates transacted business, or 

 the dies fasti and nefasti of the judicial court, was punished with 

 banishment from his place of abode. These and many other like 

 cases which occurred during the Tokugawa Shogunate show in what 

 strict secrecy some parts of the laws were kept in those times. 



The Taiho Code of 702, Joyei-Shikimoku of 1232, and other old 

 laws before the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate, were printed and 

 distributed among officials of the Imperial or the Shogunate Govern- 

 ment, the governors of provinces,. chiefs of clans, etc., but they were 

 not published in the sense in which laws are published in the present 

 day. The Joyei Shikimoku, which was the fundamental code during 

 the time of the Ho jo Regency, concludes with an oath by the coun- 

 cilors, to the effect that they would render justice with impartiality 



