Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/166

 tion to be suffering from a disease contracted previously to the transaction, he was entitled to cancel the bargain. In order to facilitate the operation of this proviso, all such sales had to be accompanied by a guarantee from a third party. Any deception practised by a seller brought him within the purview of the penal laws, whatever might have been the article sold; but a buyer had no recourse should a part of the goods purchased by him be destroyed by fire while still in the possession of the seller: the latter was then absolved from the responsibility of implementing the contract. Incidentally to land sales mention is made of written agreements and the method of their signature. In some eras all sales of land were forbidden; in some they were permitted. But even in the latter case careful processes had to be observed: the permission of the authorities was a necessary preliminary, and thereafter three deeds of sale had to be drawn up, setting forth full details of the land, and each bearing the Government's written seal. One was filed in the local archives, another in those of the province, and the third was kept by the purchaser. It appears that written seals were in public use as well as in private even at this remote period, and that persons who could not write were allowed to affix an impression of the thumb.

There were two recognised kinds of loan. One took the form of a tax rather than a loan. It was