ABSTRACT
Mushin had a single resource which was controlled by the general public and not by the state. This was urban real estate. Land and housing were investments leading to political, economic, and even social returns, and therefore throughout the metropolitan area and beyond, the ownership of urban property was highly valued. In sum, property was a resource from which many forms of power were derived. It afforded economic power, since housing was income producing. The sense of scarcity was one of the elements that fuelled the intense competition among those trying to acquire land. The background necessary to understand the legal complexities surrounding land transactions has been presented at length by a number of writers. The basic concept in customary land law was expressed by the introduced term family property. Many owners were helped in buying land, and later in building a house, by supplementary sources of income.
