Japan in adopting the double entry system, was a leader in the field of the history of accounting. In the year 1886, Rikitaro Unno (1861-1944) published Bokigaku Kigenko (Origin of Bookkeeping). It is a small pamphlet, 12.5 x 18.2 cm in size, 39 pages, but it is one of the earliest printed works on bookkeeping history in the world. The author learned bookkeeping at Mitsubishi Shogyo Gakko (Mitsubishi Commercial School), where the aforesaid Morishita was principal and Morishima, the teacher, and their works, Bokigaku Kaitei and Bokigaku Reidai, were the text-books. After graduation in 1881, he entered Nihon Railway Company and as a hobby, published a few books including this one.20
At first he intended to compile a history in English and gathered material from books of reference. His bibliography contains nine-teen books, including six treatises on bookkeeping, three on mathematics, two history books and eight dictionaries and encyclopedias. There is an interesting confusion about the author of the first printed work on double entry who was called Lucas de Burgo or Lucas Paciolus in one place and Brother Luke in another place.21 The following is the most noteworthy passage in this book;
“As Anderson23 tells us, double entry seems to have been deduced from the principles of numerical algebra. Rela-tions between gain and loss and stock, and functions of debit and credit are all proved clearly by using equations and algebraic symbolizations, as shown below;
Let S = the net stock at opening the books.
p = the gain and loss at closing the books.
D = the Dr. side of the balance account.
C = the Cr. side of the balance account. Then S ± p = N = the net stock at closing the books, and D – C = N = the net stock at closing the books.
Hence (per Ax. 1. Euclid) D – C = N and therefore D = N + C which was to be proved; that is, the Dr. side of the balance account should equal the Cr. side, added to the net stock. Hence the proof of book-keeping may be con-sidered as consisting of two methods of ascertaining my property and these must always agree if the work be right.”
I have just found the source of this important passage in Abraham Rees’s cyclopedia. It is noteworthy that this suggestion appeared earlier in Japan than a similar idea of Friedrich Hugli in Europe.25 This is not the end of the story. It can be easily seen that to assimilate foreign techniques and practices quite different from the indigenous ones would meet with difficulties. It will take time for the Western System of bookkeeping to be thoroughly under-stood and adapted to the environment before it takes firm root in Japan.