Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5 January 2011
1
Early Books of Accounting History in Japan
in the Meiji Period
Izumi Watanabe
1. Introduction
Japan had an original bookkeeping system called “Cho-ai”, which developed extensively
among big companies in the Edo era (16031867), especially in second half of the era. This
Japanese original bookkeeping system was used individually at each company. After the
Restoration of Imperial Rule (1867), Japan took a new turn that is called the Meiji era (1868
1912). The Meiji Government decided to introduce a new bookkeeping (double entry bookkeeping) system instead of the “Cho-ai” system, which is the traditional and original bookkeeping system in Japan, in order to catch up with the European and American powers of those
days.
Under such circumstances, the establishment of a unified bookkeeping system was required
as soon as possible. And two books were published in Japan in 18734 : these are Choai-no-Ho
( Bookkeeping System) by Yukichi Hukuzawa and Ginko-Boki-Seiho ( Bookkeeping System of
Banks) by Alexander Allen Shand, the former was the translation of Bryant & Stratton :
Common Schools Book-keeping by H. B. Bryant, H. D. Stratton and S. S. Packard (New York,
1871), the latter is the dictation of A. A. Shand. After that date, many bookkeeping textbooks
by translation were published and double entry bookkeeping was popularised rapidly among the
then schools and the business world.
The first book of accounting history, whose name was Gakka Kigen Ryakusestu ( A Short
History of Origin of Science) written by Aizaburo Soda, was published in 1873. After then,
Rikitaro Un-no published Bokigaku Kigenko (Origin of Bookkeeping) in 1885, and Hekigoro
Higashi published Shin-an Shokai Shogyo Boki ( New and Full Methods of Commercial Bookkeeping) in 1908. These books were written based upon the European and American bookkeeping textbooks. Many textbooks of bookkeeping were published one after another.
In this paper, therefore, I would like to trace the footprint of the innovation of double entry
bookkeeping in the early Meiji Period, and mainly to examine when the old accounting books,
which introduced accounting history, appeared.
2. The First Book of Accounting History in Japan
Choai-no-Ho by Yukichi Hukuzawa took a leading role in the promotion of capitalism in Japan
from the aspect of education. On the other hand, Ginko-Boki-Seiho by A. A. Shand played an
important role in the penetration of double entry book-keeping into the business world. The
publication of more and more accounting books in quick succession caused the technique of
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Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5
double entry bookkeeping to become more widely known among the merchants of those days
in Japan.
The Meiji Government introduced a new school system in 1872, and then the modern educational system started. The new accounting system was based on the systems of European
countries and the United States. In that situation, the first commercial school “Shogyo
Koshusho” (Commercial Training School−which is a predecessor of Hitotubashi University)
was established in 1875. After three years, Kobe Commercial School and Mitsubishi Commercial School were established. Each commercial school was a private school and most of the accounting books which were published in the first half of the Meiji Period were used as textbooks at each school just like in eighteenth century Britain. It is well known that in eighteenth
century Britain, many accounting books were published as textbooks for the academies or
grammar schools in order to train the children of merchants and businessmen of those days1).
The first book in Japan which makes mention of accounting history is Gakka Kigen Ryakusetsu
( A Short History of Origin of Science) by Aizaburo Soda, in which eight items ①Chemistry,
②Natural Philosophy, ③Book-keeping, ④History, ⑤Geography, ⑥Arithmetic, ⑦Algebra, ⑧
Geometry were written shortly 2) . It was published in August 1878−only four years after
Choai-no-Ho by Yukichi Hukuzawa. In his book, Soda wrote that Pacioli had published Summa
in 1495 (it should be 1494) following the description of Matthieus de La Porte, Einleitung zur
doppelten Buchhaltung 3) (Introduction to Double Entry Bookkeeping), Wien, Prag und Triest,
1762. This is the first book in Japan that mentions the name “Pacioli”.
Based upon Matthieus de La Porte’s book, Soda claims that when we surveyed the history
of bookkeeping, we would know that the Italian phrase for “Double Entry Bookkeeping” had
been used many times in early days. It might certainly be true, however, that double entry
bookkeeping originated in Italy. It is also fact that this system of keeping accounts for trade
was very useful and very helpful for them, so it gradually came to be called double entry bookkeeping. De la Porte said that Bruder Lucas, who is an Italian friar, described an original theory
of the double entry bookkeeping in his native language in about 14954). He was the first person
in Europe to write a printed book about double entry bookkeeping.
And also we can see the description in An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the
Origin of Commerce from the earliest accounts : containing an history of the great commercial interests of the British Empire, by Adam Anderson in 1801. In vol. 1 of this book, he writes ;
“Toward the close of this century, the excellent science of Algebraical Arithmetic, the first to
be known in Europe; a science which had proved extremely useful in many parts of mathematics, and in all calculations for interest, annuities for lives and terms, reversions, discounts, &c.
The earliest printed author on it was one Lucas de Burgo, an Italian friar, printed at Venice in
the year 14945)”, and in vol. 2, he writes ; “In all probability, this art of double-entry accounts
1) Nishikawa [1971], p. 373.
2) Soda [1878], fol. 113.
3) This book was published at first in1605 in Paris, Le Guide Des Negocians et Tenevrs de Livres. After the
formation of “Ordonnance de Louis XIV (1673)”, this book was revised in 1704. Germany version
Einleitung zur doppelten Buchhaltung was published in 1762 in Wien, Prag and Triest.
4) Soda [1878], fol.11, De la Porte [1762], SS. 8
9.
Early Books of Accounting History in Japan in the Meiji Period
3
had its rise, or at least its revival, amongst the mercantile cities of Italy ; possibly, it might be
first known at Venice, about the time that numeral algebra was taught there, from the principles of which science double-entry, or what we call merchants accounts seems to have been deduced, viz. about the middle of the fifteenth century, though it did not reach England until
commerce (about this time) began to be considerable. It is said, that Lucas de Burgo, a friar,
was the first European author, who published his algebraic work at Venice, in the year 14946)”.
Despite this exact description by Anderson, Soda wrote that the year of publication of the first
double entry bookkeeping was in 1495 7). Needless to say that it is Luca Pacioli born in Borgo
San Sepulcro (or San Sepulcro village), who was called “Bruder Lucas” by de la Porte and
“Lucas de Burgo” by Anderson. I will return to this point later.
Besides writing about Pacioli, Soda also refers to the second bookkeeping textbook : one
written by James Peele : The Path waye to perfectness, in th’ accompts of Debitor, and Creditour,
−published in London in 1569. The first Japanese accounting book, which is not a translation
but an original one, appeared in 1877. It was Kiboho Dokugaku (Bookkeeping for Self-education)
by Ryuichi Kurihara.
3. Rikitaro Un-no, Bokigaku Kigenkou (1886)
The second book of accounting history in Japan was Bokigaku Kigenko ( A Study in the Origin
of Bookkeeping)−written by Rikitaro Un-no and published in 1886 in Tokyo8). Un-no said at
first that he would like to publish his book by excerpting from original bookkeeping textbook
of English. But only a few people could understand the principles of double entry bookkeeping
if the textbook was written not in Japanese but in English, so he determined to publish his
Bokigaku Kigenkou ( A Study in Origin of Bookkeeping) in Japanese9).
Un-no was born in 1861 in Yamato-Koriyana (Nara Prefecture) as a child of samurai. At the
start of the Meiji era, he went to Tokyo. There he had the experience of learning in the private
school of Son-u Nakamura, and then he entered the Mitsubishi Commercial School. He got his
knowledge of bookkeeping there10).
Un-no wrote his book by quoting from sixteen books, but most of them are not exclusively
about double entry bookkeeping but are mathematics books and dictionaries. The books of double entry bookkeeping are only six. That is, ①Mayhew, Ira [1856], A Practical System of Bookkeeping by Single and Double Entry, New York, ②Carter, F. Hayne [1875], Practical Bookkeeping adapted to Commercial and Judicial Accounting, Edinburgh and Glasgow, ③Folsom, E.
G. [1873], Logical Bookkeeping, New York, ④ Hanaford, L. B. & Payson, J. W. [1871],
Bookkeeping by Single Entry, Boston, ⑤Jackson, George [1833], Jackson’s Complete System of
Practical Book-keeping, by Single and Double Entry, Belfast, ⑥Ellsworth, H. W. [1875], Single
and Double Entry Bookkeeping and Business Manual, New York11).
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Anderson [1801], Vol. 1, p. 544.
Anderson [1801], Vol. 2, p. 130.
Soda [1878], fol. 12.
It is translated into English by Nishikawa (Nishikawa [1982], pp. 1
17 from the last page).
Un-no [1886], introductory note 1.
Nishikawa [1982], p. 196.
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Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5
In his book, Un-no quotes from Anderson’s Historical and Chronological Deduction of the
Origin of Commerce, From the Earliest Accounts, “Towards the close of this century, the excellent science of Algebraical Arithmetic, began first to be known in Europe ; a science which has
proved extremely useful in many parts of the mathematics, and in all calculations for interest,
annuities for lives and terms, reversions, discounts, &c. The earliest printed author on it was
one Lucas de Burgo, an Italian friar, printed at Venice in the year 1494. It is said, an Arabian,
named Geber 12), was the inventor of this noble art about the year 950 ; though some think that
the Persians, Indians, Chinese, had it much earlier ; whilst others again ascribe its invention to
the Greeks, as far back as Plato’s time. What is more to our present purpose, is the great probability that the algebraic art proved the introduction of the art of merchants accounts by double
entry, commonly called Italian book-keeping, the latter being grounded on the principles of the
former ; yet, in the next century, we shall give the probable allegations of a learned author, of
the much higher antiquity of double-entry accounts13)”.
And Un-no said, though there is no established theory on the origin of double entry bookkeeping, it was used among the Indians at an earlier date, a thousand years ago or more. After
then, he explained as follows quoting the de la Porte’s book Le Guide des Negocians et Tenevrs
de Livres (1704) ; that is Bruder Lucas had published a book as to the double entry bookkeeping
about 1495 in Venice by Italian language before Lucas de Burgo. It is the first book of double
entry bookkeeping in Europe. Judging from this, he did not understand or was not aware that
Bruder Lucas and Lucas de Burgo were one and the same person.
There is one question in his understanding, because he knew well both Anderson’s and de
la Porte’s descriptions ; that is Anderson said the earliest printed author on double entry bookkeeping was Lucas de Burgo (Luca Pacioli), who is an Italian friar and printed a book at Venice
in 1494, on the other hand de la Porte said the first author of double entry bookkeeping is
Bruder Lucas (Luca Pacioli) who published his book about 1495. Why Un-no said the first
author is not Lucas de Burgo (1494) but Bruder Lucas (1495). Why is the author, whose book
were published one year later, the first author of double entry bookkeeping. Probably, I think,
Un-no put his trust in de la Porte’s explanations and Kelly’s one, whose specialty was accounting, more than Anderson’s explanation, whose specialty was commercial history. Moreover
Kelly said, “It was published in the Italian language at Venice, about the year 1495, by Lucas
de Burgo, a Friar, who likewise wrote several useful works on Mathematical subject 14)”. It is
needless to say that Bruder Lucas by de la Porte and Lucas de Burgo by Patrick Kelley and by
Adam Anderson are the same person.
After the explanation as to Luca Pacioli, Un-no wrote about Johann Gottlieb, Hugh Oldcastle
and Simon Stevin, especially explaining about Simon Stevin in detail. After then he wrote about
11) ICAEW [1975], pp. 149, 142, 146, and Nishikawa [1982], pp. 193
4.
12) Geber or Geberus (these are Latin names）is Arabian named Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (721?
815?),
who was a philosopher in the Islamic World, and it is said that he gave a big influence to alchemy and
modern chemistry. But, there is an inconsistency of dates in that Anderson wrote : “an Arabian, named
Geber, was the inventor of this noble art about the year 950 ;” but Geber died about 815.
13) Anderson [1801], Vol. 1, p. 544.
14) Kelly [1801], p. vi.
Early Books of Accounting History in Japan in the Meiji Period
5
James Peele, John Mellis, John Collins, Abraham Liset, Richard Dafforne, Charles Hutton,
Alexander Malcolm, William Morgan, John Mair, William Webster, Hugh W. Thomson,
Benjamin Donn, William Weston, Benjamin Booth, and Edward Thomas Jones.
As above-mentioned, Un-no quoted some English accounting books, with titles like “Practical System” or “Practical Book-keeping”. Un-no intended, I think, to introduce the bookkeeping whose system was adopted directly in the practice of those days. This practicality was required most in The Meiji Government, in order to catch up with the European and American
powers of those days.
This book was Un-no’s first one. Later he wrote other books, Keisengaku (The Principles of
Line, 1888), Motocho Shimekiri no Zu (The Balance Chart of Ledger, 1888), Jituyo Bokiho (The
Methods of Practical Bookkeeping, 1897), Bokigaku no Kigen to Enkaku (The Origin and History
of Bookkeeping, 1896)15). The balance chart of ledger was translated from the cut-in illustration
inserted in the beginning of Book-keeping by Double Entry (1871) by Charles H. Haswell.
In eighteenth century Britain, many accounting books were published one after another,
which were mainly used as textbooks in the academies, the grammar schools and other educational establishments of those days. In these works, the principles of double entry bookkeeping
were explained plainly and systematically in order to make understanding easy. We would call
them educational textbooks or theoretical accounting books. John Mair’s Book-keeping
Methodiz’d (1736) and Book-keeping Moderniz’d (1773) stand foremost among such textbooks.
They can be compared to Pacioli’s Summa (1494) and Simon Stevin’s Wisconstighe
Ghedachtnissen (16058) in the seventeenth century. It is generally appreciated that Mair’s
two works were the most excellent accounting books, which explained the traditional Italian
method by debitor and creditor, in eighteenth century Britain.
Towards the end of eighteenth century and the beginning of nineteenth century, a new tendency can be observed. A few authors who had been dissatisfied with the earlier textbooks for
students in academies and grammar schools wrote practical or improved accounting books for
merchants, which were applicable to practice directly, especially in case of the foreign trade.
One of these pioneers had already appeared in print by the end of the eighteenth century. The
first book that has a characteristic a practical or improved method by double entry is Benjamin
Booth’s Complete System of Book-keeping which was published in 178916).
Booth criticised Mair and other authors of earlier bookkeeping textbooks. He writes “It is
surprising that, in a Commercial Country like this, there should not be one treatise on this subject, which when applied to a large scale of business, can be reduced to practice. Those I have
seen, appear to have been written, either by persons who have not abilities sufficient for the
undertaking, or by such as never had an opportunity of bringing their theories to the test of experience ; . . .17)” We can recognise clearly his publishing aims from his words.
Bywater and Yamey write : “Tate in 1810 noted that ’Booth was the first writer in this country whose work can be resorted to for precedent’ and then went on to criticise the work because Booth ‘had rendered his work much more intricate than necessary, and very greatly
15) Nishikawa [1982], pp. 1978.
16) Watanabe [1986], pp. 29.
17) Booth [1789], p. 5.
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Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5
destroyed its utility’18).
After Booth, many practical bookkeeping textbooks were published. Patrick Kelly (1756
1842) is one of the heirs of Booth, but he criticised partly Booth’s work, and modified the intricate explanation of actual transactions of foreign trades. Kelly explains a short history of
bookkeeping in the preface in The Elements of Bookkeeping (1801) from pages iv to x. Kelly
said according to the description in De la Porte’s book that the first treatise of bookkeeping
“was published in the Italian language at Venice, about the year 1495, by Lucas de Burgo, a
Friar, who likewise wrote several useful works on Mathematical subjects19)”.
Many accounting books were issued in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Britain as textbooks for academies or grammar schools. But, from the end of the eighteenth century to the
beginning of the nineteenth century, some practical accounting books were published in Britain
in order to adjust to the actual business, because most of accounting books were published for
the textbooks in Academies and Grammar schools. Therefore the most of accounting books for
academies of those days were useless in practice. A Practical System of Book-keeping by Single
and Double Entry (1856) by Ira Mayhew and Practical Bookkeeping adapted to Commercial and
Judicial Accounting (1874) by F. Hayne Carter, which were quoted by Un-no, were published
in America and Scotland. Probably, I think, Un-no made an important point of adaptation to
practice when he wrote his book. It is very interesting that he intended to model upon these
practical bookkeeping textbooks when he wrote his book. His purpose was to write a bookkeeping textbook which can be adopted in practice.
A new tendency among the authors of bookkeeping in Britain occurred from the end of eighteenth century to the beginning of nineteenth century. That is the change from the textbook,
which was used at academies or grammar schools in those days, to the practical books which
could be applied directly in business. This tendency which is found in Japan at the beginning
of the Meiji period was very similar to the situation in eighteenth century or nineteenth century Britain.
4. Sekigoro Higashi, Shin-an Shokai Shogyo Boki (1903）
Two works of accounting history after Un-no’s book were published by Sekigoro Higashi
(18651947) ; one was Shin-an Shokai Shogyo Boki ( New and Full Methods for Commercial
Bookkeeping, Tokyo, 1903 : Hereafter, it is called the first book) : the other is Shogyo Kaikei Dai
1 Shu (Commercial Accounting : Part 1, Tokyo, 1908 : Hereafter, it is called the second book).
Higashi was born in Higashi-Sonogi-gun Miura-mura in Nagasaki prefecture, and he entered
Higher Commercial School in 1884. After graduation from it, he got a position of the teacher
of Hakodate Commercial School, finally he got the position of professor of Kobe Higher
Commercial School which was founded in 190220) . He was the first person who translated
“Accounting” in English into “Kaikei” in Japanese.
The earliest book Kan-i Boki Kyokasho ( An Easy Textbook of Bookkeeping) was published in
1901, when he was 37 years old. Next year he published Kyoka Tekiyo : Shogyo-Boki Jyu-Reidai
18) Bywater and Yamey [1982], pp. 1934.
19) Kelly [1801], p. vi.
20) Watanabe ed. [1977], pp. 26
64.
Early Books of Accounting History in Japan in the Meiji Period
7
(Ten Examples of Commercial Bookkeeping).
Higashi wrote a short history of accounting in the eighth chapter entitled “The Origin and
History of Bookkeeping” (pages 583 to 596) in the first book referring to The Elements of Bookkeeping, both by Single and Double Entry by Patrick Kelly in London in 180121). He also wrote
accounting history in detail in the second book, according to the paper by J. Row Fogo, “History
of Book-keeping”, in Brown, Richard ed. [1905], A History of Accounting and Accountants, published in Edinburgh in 1905. It was 1903 when he published the first book, and 1905 when
Brown published A History of Accounting and Accountants. Higashi wrote the first book referring
mainly to Kelly’s book and de la Porte’s book−revised version (1704)−and Anderson’s book
(1801). The description of the history of bookkeeping was very short and simple, because
these three books by foreign authors did not write the history of bookkeeping in detail. But in
the second book (1908), he explained in detail about the history of bookkeeping, because he
could mainly refer to Fogo’s article which had been already published in 1905.
Kelly said, “From the foregoing view of the principal Authors who have written on Bookkeeping, it appears that they have been composed of two different descriptions, possessing
very distinct qualifications. The first, by far the most numerous class, were Teachers who have
explained the principles without putting forward the progressive improvements of Practice ;
and the second were Merchants who have exhibited those improvements without explaining
the principles. The productions of both classes of writers are highly useful ; and to combine
their utility is the object of the present undertaking 22).”
The Commercial Law, which was drafted out in 1881 and was issued in 1890, restarted in
1899 by amending partly. The year 1908 when Higashi published the second book was confronted with serious depression, especially stocks had taken a sharp drop and many enterprises
and banks were suffering financial difficulties 23). Each company was required to keep the bookkeeping strictly in order to get rid of the bad economy.
Higashi defined bookkeeping as follows in his first book ; that is, bookkeeping is an art, which
provides well-ordered methods to make clear the situation or state of an estate at a glance. The
origin and history of bookkeeping were described in only 16 pages mainly quoted from de la
Porte and Kelly just as Soda and Un-no had done. Therefore he wrote, in the first book, that
Pacioli published Summa in about 1495, despite referring to Anderson’s book. In the second
book, however, he wrote correctly that the year of the first publication of bookkeeping by
Pacioli was 1494, because he then mainly referred to Fogo’s article. Higashi devoted 43 pages
to the explanation of the origin and history of double entry bookkeeping.
Higashi said, quoting Beckman’s A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins (1814),
which had been quoted by Un-no’s book, that origin of double entry bookkeeping could be dated
back not the latter half of Middle Ages or the early Modern Ages in Italy but to more ancient
times like ancient Roman Times or the Greek Age. When we consider the medieval Dark
Ages, it is natural for us to understand that commerce and culture in early Modern Ages revived from ancient times. If it is so, double entry bookkeeping had already been generated in
21) Higashi [1903], p. 595.
22) Kelly [1801], preface pp. ixx.
23) Hara [1989], pp. 16
21.
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Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5
ancient times. Higashi denied this opinion, however, because (he claimed) the bookkeeping
system in ancient times was not double entry bookkeeping but single entry bookkeeping. In
the early Modern Ages, many new economic systems, that is credits transactions, foreign exchange, insurance and so on occurred. According to the change of economic conditions, a new
accounting system for keeping the records of transactions was required among the merchants
of those days. Generally speaking, we can understand the origin of double entry bookkeeping
was in Italy in the early Modern Ages or late Middle Ages. But he said that we could not say
the contention was wrong that the oldest books of double entry bookkeeping was written by an
Arabian, because the first translator of algebra and the first author of bookkeeping were the
same one person.
As above mentioned, Higashi said in the first book, we could say that the view of looking for
the origin of double entry bookkeeping in Venice in Italy was the most popular theory, and he
put his foundations for his view in Pacioli’s Summa. On the other hand, in the second book, he
understood that double entry bookkeeping had not been invented by Pacioli. Pacioli had merely
summarised the system of keeping trades by excellent methods which Italian merchants of
those days used generally. Hereinafter, he took up and gave a brief explanation about the textbooks by Hugh Oldcastle, John Mellis, James Peele, John Collins, John Mair, Benjamin Booth,
J. H. Wicks, John Shires and Edward Thomas Jones24), and he enumerated the name of authors,
James Dodson, William Weston, Benjamin Donn, Charles Hutton, Robert Hamilton, William
Gordon, Daniel Dowling, William Jackson ; moreover Charles Snell, Edward Hatton, Alexander
Malcolm, Miers25), William Webster, Simon Stevin, Thomas Crosby, John London, Shortland,
William Wood, John Cook, John Sedger and Thomas Dilworth26). Thus Higashi’s explanations
in the first book mainly depend upon Kelly’s book.
On the other hand, Higashi said, in his second book, one of the oldest records of accountbooks was so-called ledger kept by a Florentine banker in 1211. After that, he explained the account-books kept by two brothers of merchants in (1329
1360) as the oldest accountbooks in German. Hereinafter Higashi described the account-books of Peruzzi (1339) which
was the first steps in the development of systematic cross-entry ; Rinerio and Baldo Fini
(1297) ; the stewards to the local authority in Genoa (1340) which showed a complete system
of double-entry in a “Pepper Account” ; Donado Soranzo and Brothers (14101416), Andrea
Barbarigo (14401449), Jacob Badoer (14361439) which one old ledger was written by Arabic
figures, and Fuggar at Augsburg (14131426) or Freres Bonis of Montauban (13451359)27).
Thus Higashi’s explanations above mentioned in the second book depend upon Fugo’s article in
Brown’s book.
He wrote his books from the viewpoint of not only the theoretical aspects but also practical
aspects. It is very interesting to consider his career as he was a professor and a certified public
accountant. Therefore, he had much interest, I think, in the history of accounting in Britain and
24) Higashi [1903], pp. 5879.
25) We cannot find the name ‘Miers’ in ICAEW [1975], Historical Accounting Literature, Mansell. Probably
‘Miers’ is ‘John Mair’.
26) Higashi [1903], pp. 5901.
27) Brown [1905], pp. 95108
Early Books of Accounting History in Japan in the Meiji Period
9
America, and he mentioned about the historical and current conditions of British Accountants
in the second book based mainly upon Brown’s History of Accounting and Accountants 28).
5. Conclusion
When the Meiji era started, the new government of Japan intended to accomplish strongly
the industrial promotion plan in order to come up with and get ahead of the European and
American powers. The important persons of the Meiji era government felt the necessity to
change the system of keeping books from the original bookkeeping system of Japan that is
“Choai-ho” system to the European or American double entry bookkeeping system.
At the introductory period of the double entry bookkeeping, the main purpose was to apply
the new system to actual business, and the explanations of theory or of history were not valued
too much. Some writers therefore felt the necessity to explain the principles and the history
of double entry bookkeeping clearly and understandably not only from the technical aspect but
also from theoretical or historical viewpoints. Thus many books of accounting and bookkeeping, in which accounting history was written, appeared on the stage of accounting in Japan in
the first half of the Meiji era.
Three Japanese authors in Meiji period, Soda, Un-no and Higashi published accounting books
in which accounting history was described. Soda mainly quoted De La Porte, Matthieus
[1762], Einleitung zur doppelten Buchhaltung and Anderson, Adam [1801], An Historical and
Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce from the earliest accounts : containing an history of the great commercial interests of the British Empire, Vol. 14. Un-no quoted Beckman,
Jhon [1814], A History of Inventions and Discoveries, 2nd ed., Vol. 14 and Kelly, Patrick
[1801], The Elements of Bookkeeping, added to De La Porte and Anderson. Higashi wrote his
item on accounting history in the first book mainly referring to Kelly and Beckman, but in the
second book mainly according to Brown, Richard ed. [1905], A History of Accounting and
Accountants. All of them quoted the same books ; that is De La Porte, Anderson, Beckman,
Kelly.
According these books, the authors wrote the short history of accounting, because it is necessary to learn the history of a science or art when people would like to understand the essence
of the science or art fundamentally and thoroughly.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
【Reference Books】
Anderson，Adam [1801], An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce
from the earliest accounts : containing an history of the great commercial interests of the British
Empire, Vols. 14, London.
Beckman, John [1814], A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, 2nd, Vols. 14, London.
Benjamin Booth [1789], A Complete System of Book-keeping, by an improved Mode of DoubleEntry, London.
Brown, Richard ed. [1905], A History of Accounting and Accountants, Edinburgh.
Bywater, M.F. and Yamey, B. S. [1982], Historic Accounting Literature : a companion guide,
Yushodo.
28) Higashi [1908], pp. 97
116. Brown ed. [1905], pp. 181
252, 271
280.
10
Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 61 No. 5
6. De La Porte, Matthieus [1762], Einleitung zur doppelten Buchhaltung, Wien, Prag und Triest.
7. Emura, Minoru [1953], Hukushikiboki Seiseihattatushi-ron (Origin and Development of Double
Entry Bookkeeping), Chuo-Keizaisha.
8. Fukuzawa, Yukichi [1874], Choai-no-Ho ( Bookkeeping), Tokyo.
9. Hara, Ikuo [1989], Wagakuni Shokugyo-Kikeinin Sedo Hattatusi (The Historical Development of
the System of Accountant in Japan), Hakutou-Shobou.
10. Higashi, Sekigoro [1903], Shin-an Shokai Shogyo Boki ( New and Full Methods of Commercial
Book-keeping, Tokyo.
11. Higashi, Sekigoro [1908], Shogyo Kaikei Dai 1 Shu (Commercial Accounting : part1), Tokyo.
12. ICAEW [1975], Historical Accounting Literature, Mansell.
13. Kelly, Patrick [1801], The Elements of Bookkeeping, London.
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