JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 399 



brother's grandchild, cousin german's child, sister's child, great- 

 grandchild, grandson's wife and concubine, and child of wife's 

 or concubine's former consort. 



(5) The relatives of the Fifth Rank are: parents of wife or con- 

 cubine, aunt's child, cousin on mother's side, great-great-grand- 

 child, grandchild by a daughter who entered another house by 

 marriage, and son-in-law. 



The above table will show that the degree of relationship was 

 greatly modified by the consideration of rank in the family; so that 

 those who stand in the same rank are not always related in an equal 

 degree, when measured only with reference to the distance of con- 

 sanguinity. It will be seen that precedence is generally given to 

 father's and husband's relatives, and to those who are in the same 

 house, in preference to mother's and wife's relatives and to those who 

 are in another house. Thus, uncle and aunt on the father's side stand 

 in the Second Rank, while those on the mother's side stand in the 

 Fourth. Husband is the relative of the First Rank to wife, but the 

 wife is the relative of the Second Rank to the husband. Husband's 

 parents are in the Second Rank, while wife's parents are in the Fifth. 

 Nephew and niece by brother are in the Second Rank, while those by 

 sister are in the Fourth. Grandchild by son is in the Second, while 

 grandchild by daughter is in the Fifth Rank, because the latter is in 

 another house on account of marriage. 



The law also made distinction between "sonzoku" or "superior 

 kin" and "hizoku" or " inferior kin." The former includes all rela- 

 tives, lineal and collateral, who stand above any person in the 

 same lateral line of the table of consanguinity; such as father, uncle, 

 father's cousin, grandfather, etc., while the latter includes those who 

 stand in the lateral lines below him, such as son, nephew, cousin's 

 child, grandson, etc. 



This system of classifying relatives into five ranks was derived 

 from the Chinese law of mourning. From ancient times down to 

 the present day, Chinese law has been very strict as to mourning, 

 .because it w r as considered as the highest duty of a man to show 

 respect and love toward the departed soul of his relative by that 

 act; and the moral as well as the legal code prescribed even the 

 "Mourning of Three Years" to the dutiful son. Chinese codes 

 abound in minute regulations as to the mourning-dress, the dura- 

 tion of the time of mourning, and the conduct of mourners. The 

 mourning-dress is divided into five classes, and the duration of the 

 period of mourning is fixed by the class of the mourning-dress which 

 the mourner ought to wear. The mourning-dress is coarser in ma- 

 terial and make as the person mourned for stands nearer and higher 

 in the family position to the mourner, - the first class, which is worn 

 for parents, husband, and husband's parents, being the coarsest. 



