Reviewed by Richard H. Homburger Wichita State University
This book is a collection of articles on various aspects of the history of bookkeeping, written by several well-known Japanese scholars. The articles were previously published; but most have been revised for this edition. This is a text written in the Japanese language, followed by a rather detailed and comprehensive English summary.
While presenting a variety of special interests and points of view, the volume in its entirety reflects the universal outlook of its editor and chief co-author, Osamu Kojima. Kojima, Professor of Accounting at Kwansei Gakuin University, has been a pioneer in promoting in Japan the kind of historical research which goes to the original documents for critical analysis rather than digests the findings of others. The author of several books, Kojima has traveled widely in Europe and North America to build a collection of slides from a variety of sources. He has initiated and supervised the recent reproduction in Japan of such rare works as the full original text of Luca Pacioli’s Summa and of the original English translation of Jean Ympyn’s New Instruction (“A Notable and very excellente woorke”) whose only extant original copy is presently housed at the Lenin Library in Moscow.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains three articles written by Wasaburo Kimura and Katsuji Yamashita which deal with the basic features of bookkeeping development, such as the conceptual difference between double entry per se (the balance of accounts) and its application to business, i.e., concepts of revenue and cost and related closing procedures. Differences of transaction profits and total profits, and their integration, are emphasized. The second, more specialized part of the text highlights the most significant contributions made over the centuries to European bookkeeping development in ten topical articles, four of which were written by Kojima, with the others by Katsumi Izutani, Etsuzo Kishi, Sadao Takatera and Chozo Muto. Coverage includes the early Italian ac-count books of Florence, Genoa and Venice, the sixteenth century records of Christopher Plantin’s printing establishment, and the particular contributions to bookkeeping development made by Pierre Savonne, Simon Stevin, Mathieu de la Porte, and Edward Thomas Jones. A discussion of early British balance sheets and of the earliest Italian text translated into the Dutch language, imported into Japan around 1847, round out the text. The Italian text came to Japan 26 years prior to the first Japanese edition of Bryant and Stratton’s book.
Distinguishing characteristics of all the articles presented are the emphasis on bookkeeping procedures and their evolution rather than on accounting theory, the scholarly thoroughness and originality of thought, and the attention to detail with which all topics are treated. As an example, the discussion of the Massari Pepper account (presented in the original Latin as well as in translation) explains in great detail the mechanics of using a loss in merchandising as a device to conceal interest charges. In connection with early Italian accounts the different geographical origins of bilateralism (Venice) and double entry (Florence) are discussed. For Jones’ “English System of Bookkeeping” the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the system are presented. Similar thoroughness is evident in discussing Savonne’s treatment of merchandise accounts, Stevin’s closing procedures, and de la Porte’s development of special journals. The author of the chapter on British balance sheets searches with great care for the origin of the reversal of debit and credit sides in some English balance sheets and traces this practice back to the East India Company.
In this reviewer’s opinion, the text represents a very worthwhile addition to the library of the western accountant even though he is not familiar with the Japanese language. The English summary alone provides very easy and stimulating reading as well as a convenient guide to the fuller and more detailed Japanese text. The text itself is interspersed with many interesting reproductions of old accounts in various European languages which can be studied for their own merit. The careful selection of topical material and the concise treatment of selected important aspects in the development of book-keeping procedures make this book appear unequaled in any language at the present time.
(Vol. 3, No. 2, p. 3, 1976)
