An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ichiguro, UK, 1986

Things around us change, and as they change so must our way of relating to the changes. We may attempt to hold on to what we feel is right, sometimes for all the wrong reasons, but we can do nothing to stop things – ideas, perceptions, loyalties – from changing.

Masuji Ono is an artist, and in 1950, as a widower with two adult daughters – one single, one married – and a grandson, he is reflecting on his life. Around him Japan is rebuilding after the devastation of the war, a war that all but destroyed his country and cost him his wife and only son. The man-made physical appearance of the country is changing, but attitudes are also changing; the patriotic fervour of the war years has been replaced by a need to be part of the global community.

In the 1920s and 1930s Ono had eagerly followed in the footsteps of his revered teacher, Mori-san, painting the ‘floating world’ of the pleasure district, but as the war loomed Ono, spurred on by a sense of patriotism, felt a need to create art that could inspire men to fight for their country. By the early 1940s artists, like Mori-san, who had continued to focus on the beauty present in light and line, ignoring serious subjects, are branded as traitors while others, who made the same political choice as Ono, watch their careers and reputations soar.

But even attitudes can be floating, and after the horrific defeat of 1945 many Japanese resent the fact that they were mislead. It was patriotism that destroyed them, and they turn their regret, disappointment and hatred towards people like Ono who are now considered traitors. Ono seems to be playing ‘catch-up’ with everything around him, unable to fully comprehend the change of attitude. He no longer paints and his paintings now stand, facing the wall.

The tradition of prospective in-laws assessing the would-be bride and groom based on family background means that his unmarried daughter is unlikely to change her civil status because of his own wartime convictions. She has already been knocked back by one family, and it is unlikely that a new suitor will step forward.

With Ono, representing the past, and his young grandson, Ichiro, who is swayed by the present and everything American, the story is a collection of images where the past and the present become intermingled, forming new images. Told solely from Ono’s perspective, the story is reliant on Ono’s memory and the way it filters experiences and ideas as he looks back on his life, reassessing the things that were done or not done and all the whys and wherefores. The reader can never be sure whether Ono’s interpretation is the right one or whether Ono’s memory of what was said and what was done can be trusted. This uncertainty is, I feel, an important part of the thought-provoking picture Ichiguro has created, showing how attitudes change and how we all, to some degree or another, live in a floating world.