ABSTRACT
In the Middle Ages, clans began to gradually disintegrate, and households took their place. It was only after the Restoration of 1868, that the house-system began to lose its force and that the individual, not the household, began to form the unit of the State. This transition may be illustrated by the history of our Law of Registration. The development of this law may be divided into three epocbs: (1) the Epoch of Clan-registration ( 姓氏錄時代 ); (2) the Epoch of House-registration(戶籍時代); and (3) the Epoch of Personal registration(身份登記時代). In those early days, when the clan formed the unit of the State, it was of the utmost importance that each person’s clan-name should be kept sacred. As only those who belonged to certain clans could fill high official positions or join the Imperial body-guard, and as several other privileges were enjoyed by particular clans, attempts were often made to forsake original clans and surreptitiously adopt the names of some other influential clans. In order to put a stop to these abuses, an “ordeal of hot water” or kugadachi (探湯) was held in obedience to an Imperial Proclamation in the fourth year of the Emperor Inkyō(允恭天皇) (415 a. d.) to test the truth or falsehood of the clan-names borne by the people. This ordeal consisted in plunging the hand into hot water before the temple of a god, and it was claimed that those who had assumed false clan-names would suffer injury, whilst the innocent would escape unhurt. In the fifth year of the Era of Tempyō Hōji(天平寳字) (761 a. d.), an office called Sen-Shizokushi-Jo(撰氏族志所) was founded for the compilation of a clanregistry, and a commission was appointed which numbered amongst its members the most distinguished scholars of the time. The work of the commission was, however, not completed. Since that time, Imperial proclamations were frequently issued ordering all clans in the Empire to send their genealogical records (本系帳) to the government, in order that they might be included in the Imperial archives. It was ordered, that in those records, the name of the first ancestor and also the name of the ancestor from whom the small clan branched out, should always be given, and the records of those claiming to belong to noble clans had to be attested by the head of the whole clan with his signature. In the reign of the Emperor Saga (嵯峨天皇), in the sixth year of the Kōnin Era (弘仁) (815 a. d.), “the Register of Clan-names,” or “Shōji Roku” (姓氏錄), was compiled, a part of which is still in existence to-day. This Register consisted of thirty volumes, and contained 1,182 clannames. In that year, Kan-kei-Jo (勘系所), or the Bureau of Genealogical Investigation, was established. The preservation of genealogical records and their accuracy 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 loss or forgery of wills is frequently made the subject of fiction by Western writers.
