An Artist of the Floating World facts for kids
First edition
|
|
| Author | Kazuo Ishiguro |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
|
Publication date
|
1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 206 pp |
| ISBN | 0-571-20913-0 |
| OCLC | 52638142 |
| Preceded by | A Pale View of Hills |
| Followed by | The Remains of the Day |
An Artist of the Floating World is a novel written in 1986 by Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro. The story takes place in Japan after World War II. It is told by an old painter named Masuji Ono. He looks back at his life and how his good reputation changed after the war. People's opinions of him and his art have also changed. The main challenge for Ono is accepting what he did in the past. His actions were seen as wrong after the war. The book ends with Ono feeling hopeful about the future. The novel also explores how people fit into a world that is changing fast. It looks at how people deal with feeling guilty or denying their past actions.
This novel is seen as both historical fiction and world literature. It is historical fiction because it is set in a past time before the author was born. It also uses real historical facts. It is considered world literature because many people around the globe read it. It also talks about how different parts of the world are connected today.
Contents
About the Author
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954. He moved to England when he was five years old. He did not return to Japan until he was 29. His Japanese mother influenced his writing about Japan. Reading Japanese novels and comics helped him stay connected to his Japanese background. It also showed him the differences between Western and Japanese society. This helped him develop his ideas for writing.
Ishiguro himself was fascinated by cowboys when he was young. This is why he included Ichiro's love for cowboys in the book. Ishiguro was inspired to write An Artist of the Floating World after his first novel, A Pale View of Hills. That book had an old teacher who had to find new ways to live. Ishiguro's childhood of moving countries made him feel not fully "at home." This led him to write in a global way. He explored his own background and heritage through his stories. The novel shows Ishiguro's personal feelings about his Japanese heritage. It is a fictional look at his sense of identity.
What the Title Means
The novel's title comes from the Japanese art term Ukiyo-e. This word means "pictures of the floating world." These are a type of Japanese art prints. So, the title can mean "a printmaker." It can also mean "an artist living in a changing world." This fits Ono's limited understanding and the big changes Japan went through in his lifetime.
The title also refers to a type of art. Ono's teacher liked to paint scenes from the entertainment district. This area was next to where he and his students lived. Ono talks about how quickly the "floating world" of each night's fun disappeared. His teacher tried new, softer Western-style painting methods. He did not use the strong black outlines that were traditional. Later, Ono became interested in strong political ideas about tradition. He grew apart from his teacher and started his own career. He felt happy when his teacher's paintings became less popular. This happened when people started using more traditional bold lines for nationalistic posters.
How the Story is Organized
An Artist of the Floating World is told through the main character, Masuji Ono's, memories. The story takes place in three different years. But Ono's memories go back to his childhood. His father did not want him to become an artist. The four main parts of the novel are named after these years: October 1948, April 1949, November 1949, and June 1950.
Story Summary
Before World War II, Ono was a promising artist. He left his teacher, who wanted to paint beautiful scenes of night life. Ono then got involved in strong political groups. He started making art to support the government's ideas. He became part of a special committee. He also became someone who reported people to the police. He reported a former student, Koroda, who disagreed with the government.
After Japan lost the war in 1945, Ono became unpopular. He was seen as one of the "traitors" who "misled the country." Meanwhile, people who had been punished, even those Ono had reported, were allowed to live normal lives again. As the story goes on, Ono seems to slowly admit his past "mistakes." But he never says it directly. He often says he is not sure about his memories. This makes him an unreliable narrator.
The book is told only from Ono's point of view. This means the reader only hears his side of the story. Ono often says he is not sure if his memories are correct. This might make the reader careful, or it might make them trust him more.
The way Ono sees himself is very different from how the reader sees him. Ono often says others admired him. But his story is full of denial. What he cares about is not what the reader cares about. For example, Ono talks about his paintings by focusing on how he painted them. He makes the subjects seem unimportant. But these subjects show that his art was used for propaganda. It is not clear if he avoids talking about the subjects because he is embarrassed now. Or if he always focused on style over meaning.
When Ono talks about a time he faced the results of reporting someone, it is also unclear. Did he try to make the police's actions seem less harsh to avoid blame? Or did he truly disapprove of how the person was treated? It is hard to know if he understood the bad things that would happen because of his actions.
Characters
Masuji Ono
Masuji Ono is the main character and narrator. He is an elderly artist, a father, and a grandfather. He is worried about his younger daughter's marriage plans. When he was a child, his father did not want him to be a painter. But he became one anyway. After leaving his first teacher, Mori-san, Ono worked for the government during the war. He created wartime paintings and won awards. In the present time of the novel, his propaganda work is not respected. This makes Ono's life difficult.
Noriko
Noriko is Ono's younger daughter. She lives with him. The narrator describes her as sometimes angry or rude. She is a bit upset with Ono at first. She thinks his past caused her first marriage plan to be canceled. But she becomes happy with her second marriage plan and gets married. Noriko feels she must take care of her father, Ono. This causes some anger and resentment in her. Noriko is outgoing and loud in the novel, unlike her older sister Setsuko.
Setsuko
Setsuko is Ono's older daughter. She is a quiet and traditional woman. She is married to Suichi and has a son named Ichiro. She and Ono have a good relationship. She helps him with the marriage plans and dealing with his guilt after the war. She listens to him. Setsuko and Noriko have a strong sisterly bond, even though they are very different.
Ichiro
Ichiro is Ono's grandson. He is Setsuko's child and Noriko's nephew. In the story, he is a young boy with a big imagination. Ono sometimes finds Ichiro confusing because he likes Western culture. Ichiro uses some English words and loves cowboys, the movie Godzilla, and eating spinach like Popeye. But Ichiro and Ono still have a good relationship. They often bond over being male.
Suichi
Suichi is Setsuko's husband and Ono's son-in-law. He represents the new ideas in Japan after the war. He is very open about his opinions on Ono's role in the war. Before the war, he was polite and happy. But after his experiences as a soldier, he became angry and bitter.
Kuroda
Kuroda was Ono's student and someone he mentored. They had a strong relationship at first. But Ono did not like the direction Kuroda's art was taking. So, he reported Kuroda to the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities. This led to Kuroda being punished and his paintings being burned. Because of this, Kuroda strongly dislikes Ono. In the present time of the novel, he refuses to see Ono again.
Chishi Matsuda
Matsuda is a nationalist who encouraged Ono to create political paintings. He criticized artists who did not deal with social and political issues in their art. He thought they were naive. After the war, Matsuda became sick and old. Ono visits him. He regrets not getting married and having no children. But he does not seem to regret the political parts of his past.
Seiji Moriyama
Seiji Moriyama, also called Mori-san, was Ono's art teacher when he was young. He strongly believed in painting the "floating world." He taught students in his villa. His main art technique was to avoid traditional Japanese methods, like using dark lines. Instead, he used shading.
Dr. Saito
Dr. Saito is an important art professor with a high social standing. He is Ono's long-time neighbor. Ono believes Dr. Saito knows his work well. But Setsuko says this is not true. This makes the reader question Ono's memory.
Mrs. Kawakami
Mrs. Kawakami owns a bar in the entertainment district that Ono often visits. She is a good friend to Ono. She hopes the entertainment district will become popular again. But it does not. By the end of the novel, she sells her bar to be turned into offices.
Yasunari Nakahara
Nakahara, also called "The Tortoise" because he painted slowly, was Ono's friend when they were young at Mori-san's villa. Many of Mori-san's students made fun of his slow painting. Ono defended him. But after Ono changed his painting style to support nationalist ideas, Nakahara distanced himself. He believed Ono had become a traitor.
Main Ideas
An Artist of the Floating World explores several main ideas through Masuji Ono's memories. These ideas are easier to understand because they are looked at over time. This lets the reader think about Ono's experiences and judge them fairly.
Some ideas in the novel include arranged marriage, the changing roles of women, and the declining respect for older people in Japanese society after 1945. Many of these ideas are connected. The story is told by a man who is an artist, a father, a grandfather, and a widower. It tells a lot about the "pleasure era" of Japanese society. It describes the life of a successful young artist in a time of luxury. The reader learns that attitudes toward Japanese art and society became less accepting of such luxury after Japan lost World War II. The book also shows what it was like to live with the guilt of enjoying such pleasures. And the guilt of supporting political groups that were later seen as wrong. The story moves slowly, focusing on small details.
Art and Politics
Art is a main idea in the novel. Ono's role as a propaganda artist is the central storyline. The novel asks if art can truly influence political actions in a community. There is a big debate about whether art should be political or just for pleasure. The novel shows how political art was later seen as harmful because of the war. But it also suggests that art might not have much power. It implies that the war would have happened with or without Ono's propaganda.
Unreliable Memories
The novel is structured as a series of memories told by Masuji Ono. Ishiguro uses different ways to show that Ono's memories might not be perfect. He slowly reveals that Ono is an unreliable narrator. This makes the reader question how much they can trust his story. For example, Ono often goes off-topic. He hides or downplays his cruel actions. He also misleads the reader about important things. When Ono talks about his family, he often gives incomplete information. This hides the full truth of what happened. Because the reader gets confusing information, it is harder to know what Ono did and how responsible he is.
Masuji Ono often rethinks past events throughout the novel. This suggests he is always thinking about his guilt. He reconsiders the role of propaganda and how memories are formed. This process of rethinking shows he is an unreliable narrator. It highlights how his views can change. The narration shows that memories are shaped by a person's own thoughts. This makes them unique to that person.
Taking Responsibility
Similar to the idea of art and politics, the novel explores responsibility through Masuji Ono's story. There is a conflict between actions and blame. This is because Ono cannot take responsibility for the political parts of his past work. Ono tries to avoid responsibility by hiding his actions and their results. An Artist of the Floating World mentions that many leaders after the war were not held responsible. The narrator quietly separates himself from this group.
Also, the idea of responsibility can be seen in a bigger way. The reader is given the job of deciding the end of the novel. Is Ono guilty of his actions, or is he just making his role in the war seem bigger than it was?
Changing Times
Japan after World War II was a time of big changes. Old traditions were challenged. Japan's defeat in the war created a large gap between people and generations. In the novel, this clash of values is shown in the relationship between Masuji Ono and his grandson Ichiro. Ono represents the old traditions of Japan before the war. Ichiro represents Japan after the war and the new generation. Major changes explored include new attitudes toward the war, family structure, Japan's geography, and the growing popularity of Western culture.
Cultural tension is shown in different scenes between Ichiro and Ono. For example, they watch the Godzilla movie. Ichiro's love for cowboys and Popeye, and his lack of interest in Japanese heroes, also show this tension.
Women are shown in this novel from Ono's point of view. They are also shown through the changing Japanese society around him. The idea of Japanese masculinity changed after Japan lost the war. While changes were made to the role of women, women's stereotypes did not change much. Relationships between genders are explored through Noriko's search for a husband.
Marriage negotiations are a key part of this novel. The marriage talks for his daughter make Ono think about his past. This helps the story unfold. They also help Ono take responsibility for his past actions. They allow him to rethink the changing values of Japan as possibly good. They help Ono admit his mistakes, moving the story forward.
Why This Book is Important
Iain Maloney said An Artist of the Floating World is a must-read for people who love Japan. Robert McCrum ranked it as the 94th greatest novel ever written.
The novel was a finalist for the 1986 Booker Prize. It also won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in the same year. It was nominated for ALA best books for young adults.
The Nobel Foundation gave Ishiguro the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. They noted that An Artist of the Floating World made him "a highly visible young writer."
