Художник плывущего мира

1986 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

An Artist of the Floating World (1986) is a novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro. 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 good will 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 novel is considered as both historical fiction and global literature (Weltliteratur). It is considered historical fiction on account of its basis in a past that predates the author's own experiences, and it draws from historical facts. It is also considered global literature on account of its broad international market and its theme of how the world today is interconnected. and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Published by Faber and Faber it is also printed by publishing companies such as Allen and Unwin and Penguin Vintage International. It has additionally become an eBook version and is available on most eBook websites such as kindle and iBooks, since 2012. Currently, An Artist of the Floating World, has been translated into over 40 languages around the world.

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, eventually moving to England at the age of five, only to return to Japan twenty nine years later. Growing up, Ishiguro had a traditionally Japanese mother, who influenced his writing when reflecting on Japan. Furthermore, his reading of Japanese novels and comics allowed him to stay connected to his Japanese heritage as well as see the differences between Western and Japanese society, influencing his writing through developing a sense of Japanese ideals. Overall, the novel is a reflection of Ishiguro's personal feelings of Japanese heritage, and a fictional reflection of his sense of identity, as presented through a youthful reconstruction of an imagined Japan. One character, the boy Ichiro, has a cowboy obsession, which stems from Ishiguro’s own fascination with cowboys during his youth. The four different years and title sections of the novel are: October 1948, April 1949, November 1949, and June 1950. Throughout the novel he is concerned with his younger daughter's marriage negotiations. As a child his father was opposed to him becoming a painter, although this is the career he eventually pursues. After rejecting his early studies with Mori San, Ono works with the nationalist government in the creation of wartime paintings and become the lauded subject of prizes. Noriko is outspoken and boisterous throughout the novel, in contrast with her elder sister Setsuko.

Setsuko is Ono's elder daughter. She is a quiet and traditional woman, who is married to Suichi and has a son named Ichiro. She and Ono have a solid relationship and she helps him throughout the marriage arrangement proceedings and dealing with his guilt post war; she acts as his listener.

Kuroda was Ono's protégé and student. They initially had a strong relationship, but after Ono disapproved of the direction of Kuroda's art he reported Kuroda to the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities. This results in Kuroda being punished and his paintings burned. Kuroda therefore develops a strong dislike for Ono, and, in the present of the novel, refuses to see Ono again.

Matsuda is a nationalist who encourages Ono to create politicised paintings. He disparages artists who do not deal with social and political issues through their art, considering them to be naïve. After the war, Matsuda becomes a sick and elderly individual who Ono visits. He is quite regretful of remaining unmarried and having no heirs to succeed him but seems not to regret the political aspects of his past. Among the themes explored in this novel are arranged marriage, the changing roles of women, and the declining status of "elders" in Japanese society since 1945. Many of these themes are interwoven. The novel is narrated by a man who, besides being an artist, is also a father, a grandfather, and a widower. It tells, with a strong voice, much about the "pleasure era" of Japanese society, elaborating on the life of a successful and devoted young artist in a decadent era. The reader learns how attitudes toward Japanese art and society became less tolerant of such extravagance in the wake of Japan's defeat in World War II, and what it was like to live with the guilt of such pleasure, as well as the guilt of having supported political movements now seen as treacherous. The pace is slow and the prose lingers over details.

Art is a central theme of the novel, with Ono's role as a propaganda artist being the chief story line. The novel questions the ability of art to influence and inspire political action within a community. There is a large conflict between whether art should be politicised or whether it should be simply a source of pleasure and gratification. The novel highlights the way politicised art was retrospectively seen as detrimental to society through the impact of the war, but also presents views within which art is conversely seen as ineffectual and unable to influence events, by implying that the war and its subsequent effects would have occurred with or without Ono's propaganda.

The novel is structured as a series of interwoven memories described by Masuji Ono. Ishiguro uses a variety of techniques to convey the fallibility of Ono's recollections to the audience, gradually revealing that Ono is an unreliable narrator and undermining the audience's faith in his story. For example, Ono makes frequent digressions into unrelated topics and events during his narration, downplaying and concealing his cruel actions and misleading the reader as to the significance of important topics. When Ono recounts interactions with family members, events are often referred to indirectly, or with incomplete information, disguising the truth of what has occurred.

Similar to the theme of the politicisation of art, the novel explores the role of responsibility through the narration of Masuji Ono. There is a conflict between actions and culpability created through Ono's inability to take responsibility for the political aspects of his past work.