ong the wealthy, four thousand to
five thousand yen is not extravagant. As material wealth increases in
Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase the style and cost of the
trousseau, and the marriage of a daughter has come to be, in many cases,
a severe strain on the family finances. But this outfit is of the nature
of a dowry, for it is her very own; and in the event of a divorce, she
brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and household
goods that she carried away as a bride.

_Page 64._

For this visit the bride wears for the first time a dress made for her
by her husband's family and bearing its crest, as a sign that she is
now a member of that family and only a guest in her father's house.

_Page 76._

Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions of marriage and of
divorce have been altered for the better. At present no divorce is
possible except through the courts or through mutual consent; the simple
change of registration by one party or the other does not constitute a
legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent cannot be arranged
without the consent of the parents or head of the family of a married
person who is under twenty-five years of age. The grounds upon which
judicial divorce may be granted seem very trivial measured by European
standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct gain over the
former practice. The wife is no longer dependent for her position simply
upon the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure her consent to
the separation, he must formulate charges of immorality or conviction of
crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on the part of the wife or
of her relatives, or of desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
three years or more. Only when some such charge has been made and proved
before a court can a husband send away his wife. In the case of a
separation by mutual consent, though the law still gives the care of the
children to the father in case no previous agreement has been made, if a
woman sees her way clear to supporting them, she may stipulate for the
custody of one or more of them as a condition of her consent to the
divorce. In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in the interests of the
children, take them away from their father and assign them to the care
of some other person.

In these changes we can see a distinct advance toward permanence of the
family tie; and we can see, too, that the wife has gained a new power