400 COMPARATIVE LAW 



The first-class mourning-dress is worn for three years, the second 

 for two years, the third for nine months, the fourth for five months, 

 and the fifth for three months. Relatives are classified according 

 to the five classes of mourning-dresses which are worn for them. Thus, 

 for instance, father and mother belong to the relatives of the first- 

 class mourning-dress; grandparents to the second class; cousins to 

 the third; great-uncles and aunts to the fourth; and wife's parents to 

 the fifth. This classification of relatives according to the five classes 

 of mourning-dresses very nearly corresponds to the five ranks men- 

 tioned in the Taiho Code, except with respect to great-grandparents, 

 who belong to the Third and Fourth Rank respectively according to 

 the Taiho Code, but who are placed according to Chinese law in the 

 second class. Besides, this classification which is made in the cere- 

 monial law of the Chinese codes finds its place in the " ceremony 

 law" or "Gi-sei-ryo" of the Taiho Code, instead of the "house 

 law," where one would naturally expect to find it. So there is 

 little room for doubt that the above-mentioned Japanese classi- 

 fication of the relatives into the "five ranks" had its origin in the 

 Chinese law of mourning-dress. 



During the Tokugawa Shogunate the study of the Chinese classics 

 was greatly encouraged, and in 1638 the famous "mourning-law" 

 (UELSl'fr) was made, which has since then been amended several 

 times and the classification of the "five ranks" went practically 

 into disuse, until it was revived by the Criminal Code of 1870, which 

 struck off concubines from the Third, Fourth, and Fifth ranks, and 

 made a few other unimportant alterations. But with the publication 

 of the present Criminal Code in 1882, it was abolished, and was 

 replaced sixteen years later by the present system of reckoning 

 relationship adopted in the new Civil Code. In this respect, too, 

 Japanese law has passed from the Chinese to the European family 

 of law. 



XIV. The Law of Personal Registration and the Civil Code 



As the house in the Japanese family law is narrower, in one 

 respect, than kindred, and may exclude even the nearest relatives 

 by blood, and wider, in another respect, and may include strangers, 

 there is no logical test to determine the sphere of persons constituting 

 the house other than their common subjection to the authority of 

 one man, the house-head. Some other external legal evidence is 

 required, therefore, for determining the constituents of a particular 

 house. Such evidence is supplied by the register which is kept in 

 every district throughout the Empire. As a person's birth, marriage, 

 adoption, guardianship, death, succession, entrance to or separation 

 from a house, acquisition or loss of nationality, and every other 

 change of man's status is recorded in the register, the law relating 



