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were considered to be matters of the utmost importance in those times, and their loss or forgery used to supply abundant material to the writers of novels and dramas, just as the subject of the loss or forgery of wills is frequently resorted to by Western writers.

The introduction of ‘ko-seki,’ house-registry, dates back as far as A.D. 645, first year of the era of Taika, when great reforms were made in the system of government.

It was only in the year 1898, the 31st year of Meiji, that the history of our law registration began to enter upon the third stage of the development. The present law, which was promulgated in 1898, and which replaced the previous law of 1871, still retains the name of ‘Koseki Ho,’ or the ‘Law of House Registration,’ but the character of the law has undergone a change, necessitated by the progress of the social condition of the country, for it provides for the registration of individual status, or ‘mibun-toki,’ as well as of house registration.

So it will be seen that until recently a house was a corporation and a legal unit of the State. But ever since the Restoration of 1868 the family system has gradually fallen, until at present the house has entirely lost its corporate character. Formerly it was the head of the family only who could fill an official position, serve in the army, and hold property. But with the reform in the system of government the members of a house were permitted to fill public positions, and with the reforms of the law of military conscription both head and members are liable to military duties; while with the progress of commerce and industry the younger members of the house were entitled to hold public bonds, stocks, and shares, which the law now recognises as their separate property. Although the house has thus lost its corporate existence in the eyes of the law, it still, nevertheless, retains its character as the unit of society. The new Civil Code, which came into operation in 1898, allows members to secede from a household, and to establish a new ‘branch house’ with the consent of the head of the family (Article 743, Civil Code); for the law recognises the tendency of social progress towards individualism, but at the same time it makes careful provision for the continuity of the house.

It is provided in Article 744 that ‘the legal presumptive heir to the headship of a house is not permitted to enter another house, or to establish a new one, except in cases where the necessity arises for the succession to maintain the main branch of the house.’ A legal presumptive heir is heres necessarius, as to him falls the duty of succeeding to the headship of his house and of upholding the continuity of its worship. For that reason he or she cannot become a member of another house