3. FAMILY LIFE

(1) The procedure of a marriage

A marriage is officially recognized by registration. But, as in other non-Western countries, Japanese society has cherished various ways of social recognition of a marriage functioning in addition to, and often against, the official requisites of de jure marriage.

a. Nakodo

A senior couple, or possibly two, is chosen for a marriage as nakodo (go-betweens). Their functions range from the nominal one of simply sitting at the main table of the wedding ceremony and reception party, through a substantial one such as introducing the bride and groom for the first time, called miai, arranging the marriage, and holding a party, to a far-reaching one in establishing a fictitious parental relationship with the couple, called oyabun and kobun.

b. Approval by relatives

Although to a lesser degree than the go-between, advance approval of a marriage by close relatives is usually needed. This might be regarded as a survival of the old council of relatives, which was granted some prerogatives in the official family system under the Meiji Constitution. But it is an indigenous practice much older than Meiji.

c. Yuino

Yuino (betrothal gifts) are to be exchanged at the conclusion of a marriage contract. The gift items have included rings since Japanese modernization, but the principal ones and their formality are so specifically fixed traditionally that special shops or sections of department stores sell such items and teach the formality of them.

d. A ceremony and a party

A ceremony combined with a reception party is required of a marriage.

Those stated above and some others not mentioned here may not be always universal in Japan. But they are so effective that the failure of a party in performing their duties is often thought to justify the right of another party in raising indignation, and in serious cases to cancel a marriage contract which was legally concluded. As a matter of fact, people tend to observe the practices, however legally unrequired.⁴⁴ For the people, they form an unofficial law. The people are as a rule required to perform those unofficial duties, while a marriage is formally completed by official registration.

(2) Muko-yoshi

The muko-yoshi (groom foster-son) is an indigenous practice indispensable for the traditional, patriarchal and primogenitary family system of Japan. For it supplies a family, who has a daughter but not a son, with a male heir adopted from another family in place of the daughter who was expected to be a female heir. This was legally adopted in the former family system, under the Meiji Constitution. Under the present official family system, the practice, which has lost official legal validity, is still prevailing. By its persisting need, the legislators put an article in the new Civil Code to officially justify this practice, although latently. Article 750 reads “Husband and wife assume the surname of the husband or wife in accordance with the agreement made at the time of marriage.” It originally aims to let the parties choose their surname by themselves according to an individualistic principle. But in actuality, the cases where the surname of the wife is chosen are almost always marriages for the intention of the traditional type of muko-yoshi.

The practice of muko-yoshi presents an important feature of indigenous law. It is sanctioned, although latently, by official law together with the modernized type of marriage, the idea of which may contradict muko-yoshi. As far as this fact is considered, the contents of official law is both received and indigenous. This means an indigenous adaptation of received law. Received factors and indigenous factors cannot be separated in reality, but coexist in an assimilation process.

(3) Tandoku sozoku

A similar indigenous adaptation is found in tandoku sozoku (soleheir inheritance) which was officially deprived of legal validity for its primogenitary ideology. One may still often want, and be expected, to inherit a legacy without sharing it with the other joint heirs, whether the reason be primogenitary or not. Available to them are the provisions of the Civil Code for voluntary refusal of inheritance to be made in exceptional cases. These provisions thus function for purposes both received and indigenous.

(4)Ie

Although some more indigenous, unofficial laws may be found, that of ie (family or household) should be treated here for its basic importance.

The Japanese family is in an ideal type regarded as a particular entity represented by the authority of the family head for continuity across generations “stand(ing) somewhat midway between the Confucian and the feudal types” characterized by “some conception and practice of â€?feudal’ rights and duties” (Kawashima, 1963: 106).⁴⁶ It fostered various rights and duties of the family members, the fundamentals of which were specifically identified as kaho or kaken (the constitution of a family).

Of course, the change of ie after the war has been rapid and great, especially in urban areas (Koyama, 1962; Dore, 1962). Assuming the “greatly weakened” “notion of the �transcendental’ unity of the family group across the generation,” “attitudes of �collectivity-orientation’ can still survive in a new form” (Dore, 1962: 184, 185) as is exemplified by the change of ancestor worship ((Smith, 1974: 211–226).

The indigenous unofficial law of family is still observable as far as the “obligations... of the family group” (Dore, 1962: 185) or “the right and duty to conduct” the rites for ancestors (Smith, 1974: 222) are observed.

(5) Dozoku

The ie principle has afforded a basis for formation of an extended family called dozoku (common kin) as is noted in various literatures (cf. Nakane, 1967; Kitano, 1962). When a family head is succeeded by a primogenitary heir, his brothers have to establish separate families of which they become the heads. But their families are not truly independent of the former. In the calling of bunke (branch families), they are obliged, with the ideal of wa, to help as well as depend on the former called honke (main family). When the families of those brothers are further divided into their children's, the honke is called so-honke (the head family of the related honkes). Certain relationships of bunke with their honke and between one another are required to be kept by the duties and rights of the families of a kin group concerned, in a genealogical hierarchy.

Such a system of dozoku was a most basic structure of Japan although with a variety of names. It originally developed in a locality. Being so persistent, the ties between the families of a dozoku function beyond the boundary of the locality. Its form and principles have permeated many other kinds of social organization. The before-mentioned main-branch tie in noren and oyabun-kobun relationship are among its remarkable variations.⁴⁷Other variations will be mentioned later. Without doubt such dozoku structures are declining. It “still remains true, however, that the patrilineal relationships which are maintained tend, where appropriate, to be structured in traditional main-branch family patterns” (Dore, 1962: 180).