Japanese Culture

Its Development and Characteristics

Richard K. Beardsley, Robert J. Smith

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415330398
• eBook ISBN: 9781136543128
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book presents an authoritative and illuminating insight into the development and most important characteristics of Japanese society and culture. Approaching the subject from a number of different points of view.
Originally published in 1963.

II. Social Structure

Stability in Japanese Kinship Terminology: The Historical Evidence*

Robert J. Smith

ALTHOUGH there exists a substantial literature on the Japanese kinship system in Western languages,¹ very little attention has been paid to the history of the development of kin terminology. Japanese scholars have been more interested in the questions raised by the extensive documentation available and have given us discussions of the early Chinese influence on legal codes dealing with kin relations, the history of the definitions of degrees of relationship, changing concepts of inheritance, and the varying emphases given throughout Japanese history to the horizontal and vertical fluctuations of the genealogical chart. The work of Nakata (1926, 1929) and Toda (1937) is an essential starting point for any student of the history of Japanese kin terms, and there are valuable papers by a number of Japanese sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and legal historians.²

No attempt will be made in this paper to deal with the full range of Japanese literature from which information about kin-term usages could be culled. Terms of reference as well as terms of address are, of course, to be found in the earliest written sources, the Kojiki (A.D. 712) and the Nihon Shoki (A.D. 720), and could be traced through literary sources up to the present time. I have limited this paper, however, to a consideration of the sources that deal explicitly with kin reckoning, that is, vocabularies, various legal codes, handbooks, and commentaries on customary usages. These sources are given in Table 1.

TABLE 1
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DOCUMENTS FOR THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE KIN TERMS*

718 A.D. (Taihō 1)	Yōrō-ryō Gisei-ryō Sōsō-ryō Fuku-ki-ryō	Yōrō Code Regulation of Ceremonies Code Funerals and Mourning Code Mourning Code
931–936 A.D. (Shōhei 1–6)	Wamyō-ruijūshō	Collection and Classification of Japanese Words
1235 A.D. (Bunryaku 2)	Taiza-ryō	Withdrawal Code
Early 15th century	Ji-pen-chi-yii (Nihon-kigo)	A Japanese vocabulary
1597 A.D. (Keichō 2)	Ekirin-bon Setsu-yōshū	“Ekirin’s Book of Principles”
1684 A.D. (Jōkyō 1)	Fuku-ki-ryō	Mourning Code
1693 A.D. (Genroku 6)	Genkō-ryō Fuku-ki-ryō	Current Legal Code Mourning Code
1736 A.D. (Gembun 1)		Supplement to above
1725 A.D. (Kyōhō 10)	Dazai Shundai “Shinzoku-shōmyō”	DAZAI SHUNDAI “Correct Terms for Relatives”
Early 18th century	Itō Chōin (Tōgai) “Shaku-shin-kō”	ITō CHōIN (TōGAI) “Commentary on Relatives”
1809–22 A.D.	Takai Hangan “Nōka Chōhōki”	TAKAI HANGAN “Handbook for Farm Households”
1882	Meiji Keihō	Meiji Criminal Code
1890/98	Meiji Mimpō	Meiji Civil Code
1947	Kaisei Mimpō	Revised Civil Code

* Excluding family registers of all periods.

Not included in the table are the famous family registers (koseki keichō) in the Imperial Repository at Nara. The establishment of these registers was required by the Taika Reform of A.D. 645, and the oldest extant are dated A.D. 702 (Taihō 2). They come from the province of Mino, now part of Gifu Prefecture (Ariga, 1948, pp. 111–12; Joüon des Longrais, 1958, pp. 444–45; Sano, 1958, p. 9; Toda, 1937). These registers list the residents of households by their relationship to the house head, but, since they do not represent a systematic consideration of relationships, they will not be discussed here. They are only the earliest of a long series of such registers preserved in various parts of Japan.

Let us turn now to the sources given in the table:

1. The Yōrō Code. The first systematic treatment of terms of relationship was undertaken in the Regulation of Ceremonies Code (Gisei-ryō) and the Mourning Code (Fuku-ki-ryō) of the Funerals and Mourning Code (Sōsō-ryō)of the no longer extant Taihō Code (Taihō-ryō) of A.D. 701 and its minor revision of A.D. 718, the Yōrō Code (Yōrō-ryō). The Yōrō Code itself was preserved through two later commentaries, the Ryō-no-gige of A.D. 833 (Tencho 10) and the more extensive Ryō-no-shuge of A.D. 920 (Engi 20). While all these early laws reveal heavy Chinese influence, it is nevertheless true that the mourning codes show unmistakable traces of repeated revision intended to bring them closer to Japanese mourning practices. It is for this reason that they are generally taken to be the earliest trustworthy evidence for kin reckoning in Japan (Sansom, 1943, p. 158–59). They specify, for the different degrees of relationship, the required periods of mourning.

2. The Wamyō-ruijūshō (“Collection and Classification of Japanese Words”). Between A.D. 931 and 936 (Shōhei 1–6), at the command of a daughter of the Emperor Go-Daigo, an official named Minamoto-no Shitagau undertook this compilation of Japanese words and their Chinese written forms. It contains much material of great interest to the student of Japanese culture and society. The best-known edition was published in A.D. 1617 (Genna 3) and reissued in 1648 (Keian 1), 1667 (Kambun 7), and 1688 (Genroku 1) in editions that were reprinted frequently thereafter (Aston, 1892/93; Goh, 1892/93; Takeuchi, 1954b; Toda, 1937). The contents of the work are listed under such headings as “Section on Clothing”; the one that concerns us here is that called the “Section on Relatives” (Shinseki-bu). What Minamoto did was to put down common nouns, for the most part, using Chinese characters, beside most of which he placed an entry in Japanese syllabary as a guide to pronunciation. These syllabary entries are not found co...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contents
• I. Origins
• II. Social Structure
• III. Village Organization
• IV. Culture and Personality
• Index