CHAPTER XXIV
POLYGYNY IN JAPAN
The forms of legal and religiously-sanctioned plural marriage, as practised in Mohammedan countries and under Hinduism, are not known in Japan. It is, therefore, incorrect to speak of the Japanese people as polygamous. Co-habitation with more than one woman is not uncommon in Japan, but there is only one lawful wife. The subordinate "wives" are not married to their husbands. They have no real share in domestic duties, and none of the rights of the licit wife; they are in reality concubines, or "kept women," and cannot take the status of the wife.
The conjugal life of the Japanese is not very unlike that of the British people. There, as in our own country, the single, sanctioned union of the sexes is the custom. In England a proportion of married men live in overt marriage, and covertly visit a mistress, or more than one mistress. In Japan there is no secrecy in regard to concubinage. A proportion of
244
