Marriage
Uxorilocal Marriages & Virilocal Marriages
Shoseikon 招婿婚 Uxolorical Marriages
Uxorilocal marriages, known as Shoseikon (招婿婚), is a Heian-era marriage practice, in which the man joins and becomes a part of the woman’s family. Uxorilocal relationships between the husband and wife can be further categorized by the terms boshokon, tsumadoikon, and mukotorikon. Boshokon refers to a marriage where the mother/wife’s residence is central, tsumadoikon refers to the act of the husband visiting the wife, and mukotorikon is a characteristic of Heian aristocratic marriages where they adopt a son-in-law. (Wakita & Gay, 1984) Although not all of these categories of marriage show the relative status of spouses, it is evident that the wife had sufficient power within the relationship to have some say in the structure of the relationship. Boshokon and mukotorikon marriage practices, for instance, convey the centrality of the wife’s household in terms of structure and power. These forms of uxorilocal marriage practices predominated marriages of the aristocratic class in the Heian period, which thus highlights the level of independence and responsibility women had at the time.
It may furthermore be noted that within these uxorilocal structures of marriage, child marriages commonly took place. In these instances, the fathers-in-law would arrange the marriages, which are “best seen as alliances” between the two families. (Nickerson 1993) Nickerson alludes to the marriage of Yorimichi and Takahime (daughter of Prince Tomohira), where Yorimichi’s father would instruct his son to marry into the imperial family after the Prince contacted him on behalf of his daughter. Yorimichi’s father is quoted saying “A man’s career depends on his wife’s family,” and that he “cannot do better than to marry into it.” While child marriages are often boshokon in their initial formation, the marriage structure may change to duolocal or neolocal structures when reaching adulthood and changing residences.
Duolocal Marriages
Another common form of marriage in the Heian era is a duolocal marriage, where the husband and wife reside in separate areas. In this form of marriage, the husband would make visits to the wife’s residence to meet their children. When compared to uxorilocal marriages, the relative status of the wife is less clear, as the husband could have multiple wives or multiple concubines. When the time comes to live together, the husband chooses the wife with the most status (status is determined by the son’s social position or the time when they married in relation to other wives). These forms of marriage were documented in literary works that took place in the Heian era, including the Kagero Nikki and Ise Monogatari. The duolocal marriages which took place in these stories conveyed notions of insecurity and anxiety from the wife as she anxiously waits for her husband. The wives would wait while wondering whether their husbands would choose them to visit. The uxorilocal and duolocal marriages which were predominant in Heian Japan furthermore, allowed women to have time and freedom to pursue arts such as poetry. However, these marriages enabled husbands to see and have multiple wives or affairs, which was not seen previously.
Yometorikon 嫁取婚 Virilocal Marriages
Virilocal marriage, also known as Yometorikon (嫁取り婚), is a common marriage in the Muromachi period in Japan. This practice of marriage is where the wife would be taken to the husband’s household so that she would join the husband’s family as a daughter-in-law. The shift from inviting the husband to the wife’s household to taking the wife to the husband’s household reflected the decline of women’s social status. As mentioned in the uxolorical marriage (shoseikon 招婿婚), both genders shared more equality in their relationships. However, when virilocal marriage became popular, women gradually lost their social and economic roles in society and they further became the properties of their husbands. Women’s primary role turned out to be the responsibility of carrying on the husband’s inheritance that they must contribute to the husband’s family by bearing sons. In the Heian period, noblewomen had more roles in society as many performed roles as officials in state politics and engaged in economic roles. However, the shift in marriage form led to women losing their major role in society to becoming a wife who only belong to the interior of the house. Nonetheless, the social structure changed from a matriarchal unit to a more patriarchal unit.
