noun
pedigree buying
Only when written 系図買い
Historical practice of purchasing a fabricated or prestigious family lineage; often associated with the Edo period when commoners sought samurai status.
江戸時代には、裕福な町人が系図買いをして武士の身分を得ることがあった。
In the Edo period, wealthy townspeople sometimes bought pedigrees to obtain samurai status.
noun
fencing stolen goods; fence
The act of buying and reselling stolen property; also refers to the person who does this. Cross-referenced with 故買 (こばい).
See also: 故買 (こばい)
警察は系図買いの疑いで男を逮捕した。
The police arrested the man on suspicion of fencing stolen goods.
故買 is a more common legal term for fencing stolen goods, while 系図買い is an older or less common synonym.
Compound of 系図 (けいず, 'family tree/pedigree') or 窩主 (けいず, 'fence/receiver of stolen goods') and 買い (かい, 'buying'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the two senses may have developed independently from homophonous first elements.