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family who filled there exactly the same position as the natural child would have done. In early times it was the rule that an adopted son must be of the same name as the adopting parent. If the adopting parent had a daughter, the adopted son married her, there being in this respect a difference from the practice in Rome, where the natural tie of brother and sister was held to be formed and marriage therefore was illegal. In both Rome and Japan, adoption followed the course of nature. Only an adult was allowed to adopt, but in Japan if the head of the family were himself an infant he could adopt. This practice was so much resorted to in Japan for two reasons. The earliest and most important was a religions one; adoption prevented the extinguishment of the ancestral sacrifices (sacra gentilicia) and the consequent disgrace which would have fallen on the family. The second reason will be considered when we speak of feudalism. The second method which rendered the family artificial was the practice of Kiuri or Kando, the sending away a son from the family, a custom analogous to emancipation in Rome, with this difference that in Rome emancipation seems to have been bestowed on a favourite son to release him from the bondage of the paternal power, while in Japan a son was only sent away if be were of an irredeemably bad character.
We next come to marriage. Marriage in Japan was not a contract between the parties or a religious institution, but a handing over of the bride to the family of the husband by her own family. Marriage was allowed, or rather enjoined, in the case of a man at the age of 16, of a woman at 13. A wife passed completely under the control of her husband, both as to her person and property, subject to reference to a council of family relations. So far we have considered the family in its internal aspect. But each family was connected with other families, as in early Rome and Greece, and thus about 50 great clans were formed, of which the four principal were the Gen, To, Pei and Kitsu. All the families of these clans were descended from a common ancestor or claimed to
