Family Feuds

I find myself in the middle of a awkward situation and would like to know what would be the correct way to address it. I belong to a Ikebana study group in my country,that is affiliated to Japan.Our teacher of 40 years passed away last week. She had made her wishes of succession known to the study group and to her family, it was someone outside of her family. She never got round to officially notifying Japan. Her eldest son has created a family feud as he has now notified Japan that his wife must succeed, as he is the eldest. This was however not his mothers wishes and the rest of the family do not support this.I am in the middle, as the person requested to succeed. I do not know what to do or how to respectfully notify Japan of what is going on, as I feel they will view this family feud as bad taste and will, due to hierachy, side with the eldest son's wishes. Has anyone got any advice on how I should persue this? The other sons want to write to Japan to explain, is there a respectful way that this could be explained?

The first thing to do is to find out what the applicable laws are. Since all this is supposedly happening in another country, I am not sure Japan should be in the picture at all.

Hi, this is not a legalissue bound by laws. This is a honour issue that I am trying to understand how to tackle from the Japanese point of view. The laws in my country are therefore irrelevant to this matter.

Do you mean succeed as in take over her place as a teacher of the Ikebana group? Did she write some sort of will that can be shown to the family?

I know nothing about this except what I just googled, so take it with a grain of salt. Are you tsalking about being iemoto? If so, it seems like it usually is passed on within a family, so her eldest probably does have a strong claim in the absence of a written document from your teacher naming you.

It is too bad that she did not formalize your designation, but that is too late now. Perhaps she was not really willing to formally deny her son as her successor?

Can you start your own school? If you have the support of many of the existing students, it might be feasible.

I never would have imagined this sort of drama went on in the world of Ikebana.