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apply if the man has completed his thirtieth year or the woman her twenty-fifth year.’ The consequences of a marriage without the consent of the parents are stated in Articles 783 and 784. The parent may make application to a court of law for the annulment of the marriage within a period of six months from the time when he or she first became acquainted with the fact of the marriage, or within two years from the date of its registration.
Another rule which existed before the Restoration of 1868 clearly shows in what light marriage was regarded by our old law. Formerly, among the Samurai, or military class, only the oldest son, who was the presumptive heir to the house-headship, or his eldest son, who would become the presumptive heir after him, was allowed to contract marriage, and the younger sons could not lawfully marry. It was the duty of every house head and his presumptive heir to marry; but there was no necessity for the younger sons, who had no apparent hope of ever becoming the head of a houshhold. They were consequently called ‘heyazumi,’ or ‘dwellers in apartments.’
Although Chinese laws and philosophy were introduced into Japan in ancient times, the famous Chinese law prohibiting marriage between persons bearing the same clan name was not adopted in those of our old codes which were modelled upon the Chinese digest. The reason for this remarkable deviation from the ordinary course seems to be this: that an ancestor only receives the sacra of his blood descendants, and the marriage between persons belonging to the same clan—that is, between persons descended from the same ancestor—was, perhaps, rather to be favoured than the alliance with a person of another clan, for the issue of the marriage would be of the unmixed blood of the ancestor. This exception to the general adoption of the Chinese laws appears the more remarkable by reason of the fact that the prohibition against the adoption of a child from a different clan, which has existed and still exists in Chinese law, was included in our old codes, almost without any modification.
Some of the articles of the ‘Ordinance relating to the Marriages of the Imperial Household,’ published on the 25th of April, 1900, and given below, show also the close relationship between marriage and ancestor-worship:
3. When the agreement of the Imperial Marriage is made, it shall be reported to Kashiko Dokoro (the temple of the First Imperial Ancestor, Amaterasu Omi Kami), Kworei Den (the temple of the other Imperial Ancestors), and Shin Den (the temple dedicated to the worship of other deities); and the Imperial Messenger for offering sacrifices shall be sent to Jingu (the Temple of the First Imperial Ancestor at Ise)