THE EARLY ERAS OF HISTORY
for maidens thirteen, but the consent of parents or grandparents had to be obtained. Already the preliminaries of wedlock were entrusted to a go-between, and the degree of order introduced into these previously disorderly connections is shown by the fact that, so soon as the concurrence of the two families had been secured by the go-between, a "marriage director" was duly appointed, his function being to secure conformity with every legal requirement. A girl of the upper classes had to consult the views of an extensive circle of relatives—parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, and parents-in-law—but this rule was relaxed in proportion as the social grade descended. Etiquette forbade that a wedding should be celebrated during the illness or imprisonment of a parent or a grandparent, and an engagement became invalid when the nuptial ceremony had been capriciously deferred for three months by the man; or when he had absconded and remained absent for a month; or when, having fallen into pecuniary distress in another part of the realm, be failed to return within a year; or when he had committed a serious crime.
Concerning divorce, a theme much discussed by critics of Japan's ethical systems, the family of a wife were entitled to demand her freedom in two cases: first, in the event of deliberate desertion, extending to three years when there had been offspring of the marriage, and two years where the union had been childless; secondly, in
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