The Myth of Primogeniture and Impartible Inheritance in Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

The stereotype of the Japanese family system, centered on the ie, characterizes it as one in which succession follows a rule of primogeniture, and inheritance is impartible. But examination of population registers—the shumon aratame-cho ( SAC)—covering the village of Nishijo from 1773 to 1869 suggests that patterns of succession and inheritance were not fixed, butfluid. After addressing the question of defects in the SAC, the author discusses succession, the establishment of branch families, and household extinction. He shows that the successor was by no means alway the eldest son, and that women frequently headed households, especially when their husbands departed temporarily as migrants. Analysis of the division of landed property between households at the time of fission shows, first, that it was partible, and second, that the size of the portions was often nearly equal. The rate of household extinction differed by class, being greater in the lower ones, whose members favored maximizing a household's income by sending members off for employment over maintaining its continuity over generations. The relationship between upper-class branching and lower-class migration established a structure of interclass mobility which may have reduced social tension. This paper suggests the diversity of social patterns in preindustrial Japan and challenges the argument that customs of impartible inheritance contributed to Japan's industrialization by limiting population growth.