JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 407 



property of a house belonged exclusively to him. He exercised 

 authority over the members of his house, because he was the con- 

 tinuator of the ancestral sacra, and in one sense the representative 

 of the ancestor. He owned his property, because it was left by the 

 ancestor, and the authority and property of a house-head rested on 

 the worship of ancestors. In those times continuation of house- 

 worship formed the sole object of inheritance. But in the course 

 of time the authority of the house-head, which at first comprehended 

 both power over the members of the house and rights over house- 

 property, came to be considered by itself in law. Afterwards the 

 two constituent elements of the authority of the house-head grad- 

 ually began to be separately considered, until at last property came 

 to be regarded as a distinct object of inheritance. 



There are perhaps few systems of law which can illustrate the 

 above proposition and indicate the process of gradual development 

 so clearly as the Japanese law of succession to the headship of a 

 house. In the succession law, " keishi-ryo, " of the Tamo Code 

 (701 A. D.) there is a provision that if a presumptive heir of a noble 

 family "is not fit to succeed to the important duty" owing to the 

 committal of crime or to disease, he may be disinherited and another 

 presumptive heir may be substituted. The official commentary on 

 this code " Ryo-no-gige " says "to succeed to the important duty" 

 means "to succeed a father and inherit the sacra, for the matter of 

 worship is the most important." It appears that at this time the 

 continuation of ancestor-worship was the principal object of succes- 

 sion. Since the Middle Ages the word " katoku sozoku" or "the suc- 

 cession to house-authority " has been used for succession, and in the 

 feudal period, especially during the Tokugawa Shogunate, succession 

 represented the continuity of the status of house-headship. In later 

 times "katoku," which literally means "house-authority," was very 

 frequently used for "house-property," which formed the object of 

 inheritance, just as the word " familia " in Roman law was often 

 used to designate property. This transition of the use of the word 

 "katoku " indicates that the law of succession was gradually pass- 

 ing from the second to the third stage referred to. 



The present law of succession, contained in book v of the Civil 

 Code, shows that Japanese law is rapidly passing from the second 

 to the third stage above mentioned, without losing its original trait 

 of the succession to sacra. The new Civil Code recognizes two kinds 

 of succession, succession to house-headship, or "katoku sozoku," 

 and succession to property, or "isan sozoku." But there are many 

 rules still remaining which show that the foundation of the succession 

 to the house-headship is the necessity of continuing the worship 

 of ancestors. Article 987 contains the following provision: 



" The ownership of the records of the genealogy of the house, the 



