RULES OF OLD JAPAN.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17469, 1 June 1922, Page 3

RULES OF OLD JAPAN.

PEER KESIONO BECAUSE SISTER , ELOPED. Count Yanigawara, a member of the House of Peers, has resigned his seat in the Upper House at the request of a deputation of Peers, who asked him to give up his Peerage on account of the misconduct of his sister Aki-ko Ito (White Lotus), a cousin of the Emperor and the most talked of woman m Japan. In announcing his resigns, tion Lount iamgawara stated that :t was "in accordance with a conscientious observance of rules in vogue ill Old Japan." Mine. Aki-ko lto married » wealthy coaiowner of 46 when she was stud m'her teens. fc>he alleged infidelity, and when her husband bought a geisha (dancing girl) and brought her to the same home, Mme. Aki-ko lto eloped with a young stuuent. Under the rules of Old Japan, the head of a family never escaped punishment when one of its memuers vio.ated the lawa of the country or of morals, and he was held responsible for the good behaviour of the whole family. During the reign of the last Emperor, a case Bimilar to that of Mme. Aki-ko Ito would have been dealt with by the head of the family either with death or banishment to a nunnery, and it was ouite legal for him to take the law into his own hands, although he himself was not exonerated. If he belonged to the nobility or to the military class, promotion in rank would have been refused him probably for life, but with the introduction of the new regime under the present Emperor the old system of ethics was eliminated from the Civil Code. Count Yanigawara, however, has authorised the statement, says the "Kobe Herald," that in view of the fact that he has always been connected with question's in the House of Peers dealing with a stricter discipline among Government officials, he feels that he is personally affected by jthe acts of his "erring Bister." The absence of legal responsibility is overruled in his mind, he says, by "loyalty to the sentiment that ruled the actions of his predecessors." The blame, nevertheless, was put on his sister's shoulders, and a startling announcement was made that Aki-ko Ito, who is now described as "thiffmodern Japanese Sapho," had renounced the world and its ways, and after shaving her head and taking the Buddhist vows, had entered a nunnery at Kyoto.