An Artist of the Floating World

This blog is a response to the thinking activity task assigned by Dr Dilip Barad sir. This blog will be on Kazuo Ishiguro's "An Artist of the Floating World"

An Artist of the Floating World written by British Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The novel is set in post world war II Japan. It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his once great reputation has faltered since the war and how attitudes towards him and his paintings have changed. The chief conflict deals with Ono's need to accept responsibility for his past actions rendered politically suspect in the context of post-War Japan. The novel ends with the narrator expressing goodwill for the young white-collar workers on the streets at lunchbreak. The novel also deals with the role of people in a rapidly changing political environment and with the assumption and denial of guilt.

The Symbol of Lantern:

Tōrō- is a traditional lantern made of stone, wood, or metal. Like many other elements of Japanese traditional architecture, it originated in China where they can still be found in Buddhist temples and Chinese gardens. Later Lit lanterns were considered an offering to Buddha. Their use in Shinto shrines and private homes started during the Heian period (794–1185).

Japanese culture is also known for its culture, they celebrate Toro Nagashi -Literally translating to “lantern” and “cruise/float”, respectively,  the Japanese Floating Lantern Festival- Toro Nagashi, represents the Japanese concept of floating paper lanterns down a river. Traditionally, this idea of floating paper lanterns symbolized the guiding of souls, those who have left the physical world and now exist spiritually.

Lanterns can be occasionally seen in old shops and often at many festivals in Japanese shows and movies.

The lantern is of great significance in this novel. The term Lanter appears many times in this novel. Lanterns in the novel are associated with Ono's teacher Mori-san, who includes a lantern in each of his paintings and dedicates himself to trying to capture the look of lantern light. For Mori-san, the flickering, easily extinguished quality of lantern light symbolizes the transience of beauty and the importance of giving careful attention to small moments and details in the physical world. Lanterns, then, symbolize an outlook on life that prizes small details and everyday moments above the ideological concerns of nationalists or commercial concerns of businesspeople. It is an old-fashioned, aesthetically focused, and more traditional way of viewing the world.  

lanterns are also associated with the burning of the painting, and we know that it is not directly shown in the novel but it is one of the indirect meanings we get in the scene where Masuji Ono and his father were having a conversation about Masuji's paintings. Later Ono smells something burning but his mother is not agreeing with him. She almost avoided Ono's query. but here we get the sense that the smell of burning from his father's room could be Masuji Ono's paintings burnt by his father.

Film Adaptation:

The movie An Artist of the Floating World directed by Kazuki Watanabe is originally Titelled as "Ukiyo no gakka".This movie is faithful to the original novel though there is some improvisation from the side of the director. Like at the start of the movie the 'Bridge of Hesitation' is constantly coming in the novel. There is no conversation between father and son. In the novel that scene plays a vital role because this is the incident that led Ono to move away from his home and start his career in painting.

The above frame is showing Masuji Ono (younger self) burning his Paintings, and the Older self is watching his younger self burning his own paintings. This is not in the novel it is an interpretation of the novel made by the director.

Uses of Art/Artist:

There are main two perspectives that we know of, one is 'Art for Art's Sake and the other is 'Art for Life's Sake.' In this novel, There are five perspectives, 1) Art for the sake of art- Asthtic delight, 2) Art for earning money or business purpose, 3) Art for nationalism/Imperialism- Art for the propaganda of Government Power, 4)Art for the Poor / Marxism, and 5) No need of art and artist.

The last perspective: No need of art and artist is the perspective of Ono's father when he found out that his son is interested in painting. there is no direct event that shows that his father has burned his painting but we can assume that the smell of burning is the burning of the paintings. His father is believing that art can not help you in earning money, it will only bring poverty. Matsuda is leading Ono towards the problems of the lower-class people. this leads him to paint the 'Eyes on Horizon' and 'Complacency' Painting.