The Artist Of The Floating World Analysis

The Artist of the Floating World is a novel set in Japan in the 1950s where traditional Asian values are prevalent. One can assume that given such a traditional setting, this narrative of different generations would reflect one common quality – complete obedience to the senior by the junior. However, this novel seems to reflect the complete opposite. I will argue through different relationships in the novel that while the senior usually assumes the authority, there is a tendency for the junior to challenge it. While this same tendency remains throughout generations even though methods to do so may change, it leads us to question the validity of Ono’s belief “that while it is right to look up to teachers, it was always important to question their authority (page 73)” and if this tendency is for the better or for the worse.

This tendency first appeared in Ono’s childhood recollection of his interaction with

Ono’s life was considered smooth-sailing under Mori-san until Matsuda influenced Ono to support nationalistic beliefs and Ono started producing artworks that were considered pro-propaganda. When Mori-san first found out about Ono’s deviant behavior, Mori-san started sharing his viewpoint on how artists should remain in the floating world but resulted in the rebuttal of Ono who commented on how ‘it is not necessary that artists always occupy a decadent and enclosed world’ and how Ono decided that he ‘cannot remain forever an artist of the floating world’ (page 180). When Mori-san politely requested Ono to surrender his other pro-propaganda paintings, Ono simply refused and said that he ‘will not be able to find the other paintings’. This is significant in Ono’s path of being an artist because of this incident; he ended the teacher-student relationship with Mori-san and Mori-san’s tutelage to further pursue his career as an artist that produces work with a purpose – propaganda