e comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes
cannot furnish.

We have hitherto spoken of married life when the wife is received into
her husband's home. Another interesting side of Japanese marriage is
when a man enters the wife's family, taking her name and becoming
entirely one of her family, as usually the wife becomes of the
husband's. When there are daughters but no sons in a family to inherit
the name, one of three things may happen: a son may be adopted early in
life and grow up as heir; or he may be adopted with the idea of marrying
one of the daughters; or, again, no one may have been formally adopted,
but on the eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable age, her family
and friends seek for her a _y[=o]shi_, that is to say, some man (usually a
younger son) who is willing and able to give up his family name, and, by
marrying the daughter, become a member of her family and heir to the
name. He cuts off all ties from his own family, and becomes a member of
hers, and the young couple are expected to live with her parents. In
this case the tables are turned, and it is he who has to dread the
mother-in-law; it is his turn to have to please his new relatives and to
do all he can to be agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and divorced by
the all-powerful parents, if he does not please; and such divorces are
not uncommon. Of course, in such marriages, the woman has the greater
power, and the man has to remember what he owes her; and though the
woman yields to him obediently in all respects, it is an obedience not
demanded by the husband, as under other circumstances. In such marriages
the children belong to the family whose name they bear, so that in case
of divorce they remain in the wife's family, unless some special
arrangement is made about them.

It may be wondered why young men ever care to enter a family as
_y[=o]shi_. There is only one answer,--it is the attraction of wealth
and rank, very rarely that of the daughter herself. In the houses of
rich _daimi[=o]s_ without sons, _y[=o]shi_ are very common, and there
are many younger sons of the nobility, themselves of high birth, but
without prospects, who are glad enough to become great lords. In feudal
times, the number of _samurai_ families was limited. Several sons of one
family could not establish different _samurai_ families, but all but the
eldest son, if they formed separate houses, must enroll themselves among
the ranks of the common people. Hence the y