A Corroborative Study of Parent-Child Contracts in the Edo Period, With Special Emphasis on the Child's Support of Aged Parents

我很高兴这项研究给了我一个法律史学者一个机会，以某种方式为当前法律的实践的持续筛选做出贡献。在这方面，这项研究非常有助于证实我的信念，即历史研究实际上可以为我们提供处理当前问题的智慧。法律史作为一门研究过去的学科，因其实用性而被证明属于这一领域，1996年修改了《农民养恤金法》，以便将农业继承人的妻子纳入养恤金领取人。作为这一修订的先决条件，应考虑缔结“家族企业协议”的必要性。这种协议可以被称为现代的“亲子合同”，在江户时代曾经很流行。日本农业和渔业部以及全国农业理事会都在推动该协议，到目前为止，它们都对德国人表现出了偏好 关于我们 和法国的法律的框架。从一开始，就发现外国法律的原则在国内情况下不起作用。全国农业理事会认识到这种差异和江户时代亲子契约的优点，邀请我参加在东京、福岛和群马举行的讲座和研讨会。本研究的主要意义在于尽可能多地收集农村地区有关亲子契约的原始文献，尤其是有关赡养老人的原始文献。然而，我发现很难找到这样的文件，部分原因是没有太多的研究人员参与这一领域。我收集的资料不多，所以我整理了一下。关于收养女婿的契约，或者说是“Muko-yooshi Engumi”，我主要研究的群马地区有一些资料。这些主要是照片资料，所以我把它们发表在群马历史研究杂志上。我也在一些杂志上写了一些关于这个问题的文章。少

It is my great pleasure that this research has given me, a scholar of law history, a chance to contribute in some way to the ongoing sift of current legal practice. In this respect, this study was immensely helpful for confirming my belief that history studies could virtually provide us the wisdom for handling the present matters. History of laws, as a subject of treating the past, has proved to be in this domain for its practicality.In the year of 1996, the pension law for farmers was modified so as to include the wives of farm successors as its recipients. As a prerequisite to this revision, the necessity of concluding a 'family business agreement' should be taken into consideration. This agreement could be called the modern-day 'parent-child contract' which used to be prevalent in the Edo period. The ministry of Agriculture and Fishery and the National Council of Agriculture, both of which have a role of promoting the agreement in Japan, have so far showed preference for the German … More and French legal frameworks. From the first, the principles of foreign laws were found not to work properly in the domestic situations. The Naitonal Council of Agriculture, recognizing such a discrepancy and a merit of parent-child contracts in the Edo period, kindly invited me to the talks at the lectures and symposiums which were held in Tokyo, Fukushima, and Gunma. On such occasions, my research could make contributions to giving a new perspective into the law formation in progress, in a practical sense.The primary significance of this research was to collect as many original documents about parent-child-contracts, especially about the support of the aged parents, as possible from rural districts. However, I found it extremely difficult to come across such documents, in part because not too many researchers were involved in this field. The documents which came into hand are few and I compiled them.In regard to the contract drawn up in adopting a man as a son-in-law into the family or 'Muko-yooshi Engumi' in Japanese, some documents were available in the Gunma district which was a main study area for my study. These are largely photographic data and so I published them in the Journal of Gunma History Studies. I also wrote some articles on this issue in some magazines. Less