ABSTRACT
The majority of population of Taiwan at the time of Japanese takeover in 1895 consisted of immigrants from China mainland and they came with firm beliefs in ancestral sacrifice. From 1908, as the survey on old customs was drawing to a close, the Old Customs Investigation Association was drafting legislation that might be applied on customary practices, including public properties for sacrifice. In 1928, an interpretation of the Supreme Court of Taiwan on the law made a significant change. In its ruling over a dispute, the court ruled that members who had interest in sacrificial public property might not necessarily be descended from the deceased to whom sacrifice was offered. The colonial government's rulings on registration of public properties were informed by their surveys on customary practices, reports on which subject were published in 1903, 1906, and 1910–11. Following civil law practice, the report is divided into four parts: persons, immovable property, movable properties, and commercial matters, including debt.
