394 COMPARATIVE LAW 



(3) A "shoshi" or natural-born child recognized by its father who 

 is a house-member, or a natural-born child of a female member 

 of a house, enters the house of its father or mother only when 

 the house-head's consent is obtained. 



(4) A wife enters the house of her husband, except when a female 

 house-head contracts a marriage, in which case the husband 

 enters the house of his wife. 



(5) A relative of a house-head who is in another house or a relative 

 of a house-member who has become such by adoption or mar- 

 riage, enters the house, if the consent of the head, both of the 

 house he is leaving and of the house he is entering, is obtained. 

 A person who cannot enter any house, such as a child whose 

 parents cannot be ascertained, establishes a new house, and 

 becomes himself a house-head. 



A house thus constituted is entered in the house-registry or 

 " koseki " which is kept in every district thoughout the Empire. 



Kinship, according to the Civil Code, arises from relationship by 

 blood, by adoption, or by marriage, and exists 



(1) Between relatives by blood within six degrees inclusive. 



(2) Between husband and wife. 



(3) Between relatives by marriage within three degrees inclusive. 

 (Civil Code, art. 725.) 



(4) Between an adopted child and adoptive parent and the latter's 

 blood relatives, the same relationship exists, from the date of 

 the adoption, as that between blood relatives. (Civil Code, 

 art. 727.) 



(5) Between step-parents and step-children, a wife and her hus- 

 band's recognized child, the same relationship exists as that 

 between parent and child. 



Now a house may include persons who are not the kindred of the 

 house-head, because it includes the kindred of the preceding house- 

 head, or the kindred of a house-member who is not related to the 

 present house-head; and may exclude even the nearest kindred, 

 because, by adoption or marriage and other causes above mentioned, 

 a man may enter another house, or return to the original house by 

 the dissolution of the marriage or adoptive tie, or establish a new 

 house, leaving his own parents or child in the original house. The 

 house, therefore, is wider than kinship on the one side, whilst it is 

 narrower on the other. Sir Henry Maine's description of the ancient 

 family so well tallies with the present state of the house in Japanese 

 law except in one particular which shows the peculiarity of Japanese 

 family law that I cannot do better than quote his words in full : 



"The family, then, is the type of an archaic society in all the 

 modifications which it was capable of assuming; but the family 

 here spoken of is not exactly the family as understood by a modern. 



