Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎503r] (130/238)

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Japanese Monographs.
the newly-married lady, not as Mrs. So-and-so, but as the
wife of Mr. So-and-so.
It will be understood by this monograph that the marriage
ceremony of Japan is simply a domestic and family agree
ment. No outward religious observance was required to
complete the union. Priests were not summoned to bless
the united pair, or to ask special advantages to crown their
future. The ethics of ancestral worship alone influenced
in a silent and unobtrusive manner the future lives of the
wedded pair. It was the dead who were called to remem
brance, whose spirits would watch over the living, who
were believed to be ever present in the midst of the circle
of the home-life, and on this auspicious occasion in
particular. The ceremonial was full of symbolism. Each
step in the proceedings, and every dish of food partaken
of, set forth the lesson of indissoluble union. Surroundings
silently supplied religious teaching : and the bride’s white
robe in time became her shroud.
But every custom has generally its bright side. There
exist in Japan family ties deeper than those which influ
ence as a rule the family affections of the West. This
state of things has originated from the morals of Confucius
and the ethics of Shintoism. There are many tenets which
bind a home together and strengthen the harmony of life
within its walls. These are not learnt through the public
oratory in temples, but in the constitutional and religious
government of the home-life of all classes. This training
was undertaken first by the mother, later by the father,
and by all in authority successively. Responsibilities
weighed heavy on the heads of each household, and all
points of importance relating to the career of each junior,
received their most just and careful consideration, authority
ranking thus: “ Ancestors were the first ruling power,
relations the second, society the third, and the law the
fourth.”
Hence, in order to carry out these responsibilities, the
elder male member of a family inherited all real property.