essay questions on an artist of the floating world

Essay Prompts

An artist of the floating world.

To what extent does An Artist of the Floating World  show that there is no pure form of art?

What makes Ono an unreliable narrator of his own story?

Characters in Ishiguro’s novel fail to take responsibility for their actions. Discuss.

Some of the changing values within the An Artist of the Floating World are seen as positive. Discuss.

‘Suichi believes it’s better he [Ichiro] likes cowboys than that he idolise people like Miyamoto Musashi. Suichi thinks the American heroes are the better models for children now.’ To what extent does An Artist of the Floating World demonstrate the extent to which Japan accepted American influence?

In what ways do Suichi’s and Ichiro’s generations differ from Ono’s?

‘…And if on reaching the foot of the hill which climbs up to my house, you pause at the Bridge of Hesitation and look back towards the remains of our old pleasure district, … you may see the line of old telegraph poles … and be able to make out the dark clusters of birds perched uncomfortably on the tops of the poles, as though awaiting the wires along which they once lined the sky…’ In what ways is the Bridge of Hesitation metaphoric of Ono’s life?

How does Setsuko’s character exemplify the changing role of women in An Artist of the Floating World ?

Ono has more reasons to feel proud than he does to feel guilty. Do you agree?

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An Artist of the Floating World

By kazuo ishiguro, an artist of the floating world study guide.

An Artist of the Floating World is a novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro , published in 1986. Ishiguro is a prolific and well-known novelist, famous for his books The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go . He has won the Man Booker Prize and won the Nobel Prize in 2017, and was knighted in 2019. An Artist of the Floating World , his second novel, is an example of his earlier writing, and was well-received, earning a Whitbread Award. This novel is particularly well-known for its use of an unreliable narrator, Masuji Ono . It tells the story of Ono, a retired Japanese artist trying to come to terms with changes in his country after the Second World War. Ishiguro himself was born in Japan, but emigrated to the United Kingdom as a child and did not return to Japan until after publishing An Artist of the Floating World. He has said that, by writing about places with which he is unfamiliar, such as post-war Japan in this novel, he is able to write more imaginatively.

Though the book dwells on events from Ono's childhood and early adulthood, it is held together by a linear thread taking place in the novel's present, the late 1940s and early 1950s. This thread describes Ono's attempt to arrange a marriage for his younger daughter, Noriko . He believes that his reputation is in shambles because of his early nationalistic paintings, and he grieves for the family members lost in the war. Over the course of the novel, Ono's narration flashes between past and present, and he often calls his own reliability into question by interrogating the accuracy of his own memories. The novel deals with themes including war, solitude, aging and death, and grief. Stylistically, it is rather spare and direct, though its structure calls that directness into question with poignant omissions. The book is split into four sections, which are titled using time markers: October 1948, April 1949, November 1949, and June 1950.

An Artist of the Floating World is not Ishiguro's best-known novel, but it is one of his most critically acclaimed, and was shortlisted for a Man Booker Prize. Robert McCrum listed it as one of the 100 best novels in the English language in the Guardian in 2015, and it was a finalist in the ALA Best Books for Young Adults. In the New York Times, Kathryn Morton, reviewing the novel, wrote that it "stretches the reader's awareness, teaching him to read more perceptively." Ishiguro, speaking of his early novels, notes that he tended to be focus on the way older people viewed their younger selves, saying, of his youth, "I'd spend long nights with my friends sorting out moral and political positions that we thought would take us through adult life. And part of that would end up meaning we despised some people not for what they did, but for the opinions they professed to hold. But as I've got older I think I've realised that while it is important to have principles, you have far less control of what happens. These principles and positions only get you so far because what actually happens is that you don't carefully chart your way through life."

An Artist of the Floating World Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for An Artist of the Floating World is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Please help me with a plot for each page characters, theme and stylistic devices.

GradeSaver has a complete study guide for this unit readily available for your use. Simply navigate to the study using the title link at the top of the page.

Describe the character traits of major characters.

Ono is the novel’s protagonist and narrator. He is, at the time of the narration, an aging retired artist in post-war Japan. He has a somewhat mysterious past, which he reveals in small pieces, and it seems that his role in the art world once...

How did Master Takeda and Masjid Ono relate?

Ono worked for Master Takeda. During his time with Master Takeda, Ono learned that art is a process that belongs to the artist.... something that should not be created under factory-like conditions and deadlines. When Kuroda and the other pupils...

Study Guide for An Artist of the Floating World

An Artist of the Floating World study guide contains a biography of Kazuo Ishiguro, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About An Artist of the Floating World
• An Artist of the Floating World Summary
• Character List

Essays for An Artist of the Floating World

An Artist of the Floating World essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro.

• The Use of Generational Differences in Order to Establish the Importance of the Floating World

Lesson Plan for An Artist of the Floating World

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to An Artist of the Floating World
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• An Artist of the Floating World Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for An Artist of the Floating World

• Introduction
• Publication history
• Autobiographical elements

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An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro KCSE Essay Questions and Answers

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Each Question has 20 marks

QUESTION 1 The Novel An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro.   (20 marks)

1. War results in devastating consequences. Justify this statement by referring to the events in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, An Artist of the Floating World.

2. War and Conflict can have long lasting effects in the life of an individual. Write an essay asserting to the truth in the above statement.

3. „Significant forces makes us to retrogressively question our beliefs‟ Support using illustrations from Kazuo Ishiguro‟ An Artist of the  Floating World.

4. ‘ An Artist of the floating world is a Novel about intergenerational conflicts’ Discuss.

5. There may be generational conflict between the young and the old in any society, but the young have a moral obligation to obey and respect the elderly. Drawing relevant illustrations from Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World , write an essay in support of this statement.

6. War has a way of turning people’s lives inside out. Using specific illustrations from Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World , write an essay to show the truth of this statement.

7. War is a social evil that should be avoided at all costs owing to its adverse consequences.  Validate the statement referring to Kazuo Ishuguro’s novel An Artist of the Floating World.

8. The novel: An Artist of the Floating World.

Yearning for reputation and social status can lead someone down to a path of fear and obsession.

Making reference to Ono in the Novel ‘An Artist of the Floating World’, discuss the validity of

this statement. (20 marks)

9. “War has mostly negative outcomes” with illustration from novel “An artist of floating world”support this statement.

This is paragraph 2 for posts without the target word.

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An Artist of the Floating World Essay Questions

Read also stylistic devices in an artist of the floating world by by kazuo ishiguro, 1. ono is widely considered to be an example of an unreliable narrator. what does this phrase actually mean and in what way does ono prove that the moniker fits him.

An unreliable narrator is a first-person narrator whose credibility is seriously compromised and whose version of the narrative is therefore highly skewed and subjective. Sometimes an unreliable narrator’s unreliability is obvious immediately; in other instances, their unreliability does not reveal itself until the latter stages of the novel or movie in question. When the latter occurs, it often forces the reader or viewer to completely change their view of a character or a situation, and sometimes changes their thoughts about the events in a story entirely.

Ono is somewhat unique as an unreliable narrator because it is he who tells us at the start of the novel that he is unreliable. He tells us that he cannot remember all of the details of the events he is recounting. He even hints that his memory and cognitive abilities are slipping, describing some of his new absentminded habits. Strangely, though, this honestly causes us to trust him more in certain ways, since he appears self-aware. Later, however, we learn that Ono has exaggerated many facts of his career, trying to match his own feelings of guilt to an external narrative, as well as in an attempt to feel relevant and important as he ages. Therefore, while we understand him to be somewhat unreliable from the start, the true extent of this tendency is revealed much later.

2. What are the two main artistic ideologies represented in this book, and which does Ono ultimately believe is correct?

Some characters in this novel believe that art exists to capture beauty, especially if that beauty will otherwise go unrecorded. Moriyama, for instance, subscribes to such a belief. Other characters, most notably Matsuda, believe that art should exist as part of social and political movements, and that aesthetics should influence rather than imitate life. Ono begins his career under Moriyama’s tutelage and is clearly struck by his ideology of art, but Matsuda manages to eventually convert him to his own side. After the war, at the time of the novel’s narration, Ono seems torn. His descriptions come alive when they focus on the floating world of Moriyama’s paintings, but he also speaks about his political awakening and political art with vivid conviction. In the end, it seems, Ono believes that art is powerful enough to do both, or else—he fears—powerless enough to do both without causing any disruption or change.

3. Why is Ono so upset by his grandson’s pretend games, and how does this conflict relate to the theme of generational divide?

Ichiro enjoys pretending to be a cowboy, specifically the Lone Ranger. While doing so, he pretends to speak English to himself. Ono catches him playing this game, and is disturbed when he finds out that Ichiro likes to pretend to be an iconic American figure rather than a Japanese one. His seeming overreaction occurs because he feels stifled by the American military occupation in Japan, and, to an even greater extent, by the American cultural influence at play in his country. Younger people, including Ichiro’s parents, are completely accepting of American influence and even see it as a positive cultural factor. Therefore, when he sees his grandson pretending to be a cowboy, Ono fears that his children’s generation is corrupting his grandson’s generation, reinforcing their own Westernized values and implicitly rejecting Ono’s own values.

Read also Characterization In An Artist Of The Floating World By Kazuo Ishiguro

4. how does ishiguro distinguish the atmosphere of the “floating world” from that of the regular world using imagery and figurative language.

For the most part, Ishiguro’s language is fairly understated, and he avoids metaphor and simile. The “floating world” is an exception. In Ishiguro’s descriptions of this world, as well as in Moriyama’s paintings of it, lantern-light plays an essential role. Ishiguro describes the light with metaphors that create an ethereal, spooky mood, such as that of a “grotesque miniature graveyard.” In addition, while Ishiguro tends to use mostly visual images to describe everyday reality, he uses non-visual images to describe the “floating world” and Ono’s life in that period. These images include the sound of wooden sandals on the ground and the smell of rotting wood in Moriyama’s villa.

5. Discuss the use of Noriko’s marriage negotiation as a means to drive this novel’s plot forward while revealing Ono’s past.

Noriko marries through a traditional arranged marriage, even while Japan goes through a period of rapid economic growth and westernization. The negotiations, then, are a useful way to show how Japan has remained familiar to Ono in certain ways while transforming with overwhelming speed in others. Engagements, marriages, and the subsequent starting of a household and family are a familiar and fairly linear pattern, which makes this sequence useful as the book’s main linear plotline. While Ono’s tumultuous past appears in bits and pieces, this marriage appears in a chronological order that will be familiar to most readers, even if they are not familiar with specifically Japanese norms and traditions surrounding marriage. At the same time, the negotiation necessitates interviews with people from Ono’s past, so that even as if moves forward it helps cast the novel backward. When Ono visits Kuroda and Matsuda, the plot can seamlessly transition into conversations about and descriptions of his younger days.

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An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo ishiguro, everything you need for every book you read..

The novel begins in an unnamed city in Japan in October 1948. The narrator is Masuji Ono , a retired artist who lost both his son and wife during the war which also caused serious damage to his beautiful house. Ono recalls the previous month’s visit of his older daughter Setsuko and her son Ichiro who live in a different town. The whole family is concerned about the marriage prospects of Ono’s younger daughter Noriko , because, a year before, Noriko had been in marriage talks with a man named Jiro Miyake when his family withdrew from negotiations under mysterious circumstances. Noriko is currently at the start of new marriage talks with a man named Taro Saito , but at nearly twenty-six, she is considered old to be unmarried. Ono is annoyed because he feels his daughters believe he knows the real reason why the marriage negotiations broke off and is hiding it from them.

Ichiro is fascinated by a poster for a monster movie that he saw at the train station. Ono decides to take Ichiro to the movie the next day, but his daughter Noriko says she has made plans. Setsuko says that she will stay with her father the next day, and Ono and Ichiro can go see the monster movie the following day. The next day, Setsuko says to her father that it may be wise to take precautions to prevent certain facts about his past from coming into the hands of the Saito family when they investigate the Ono family background. The day after that, Ichiro and Ono go to the monster movie. On the way there, they run into Taro Saito’s father, who tells Ono that he has discovered they have a mutual acquaintance: Mr. Kuroda .

Ono intersperses reflections about the past and present into his account of Setsuko’s visit. He describes the time he spends at Mrs. Kawakami ’s place, the last bar standing in an area that had been a pleasure district with a number of bars and restaurants in the years before the war. There, he and his former pupil Shintaro reminisce with Mrs. Kawakami about the old days. Ono also recounts his role in bringing the pleasure district into existence. As a prominent artist, he had written to the authorities and gotten them to place their support behind a bar. The bar, called the Migi-Hidari, became a place where Ono and his students often drank and talked about the role of their art in building a great new future for Japan. Ono also recalls an incident from his own childhood when his father told him he would disgrace the family if he became an artist and then burned Ono’s paintings. Ono also recollects several run-ins with the younger generation. He remembers running into Jiro Miyake and hearing from him that he is glad that the president of his company committed suicide to atone for the company’s behavior during the war. He also recalls a conversation with Setsuko’s husband Suichi at the reception after his son Kenji’s funeral, where Suichi expresses anger over the many members of his generation that were killed during the war and the many leaders who have been too cowardly to take responsibility for their role during the war. Finally, Ono describes his first visit to an old colleague to make sure nothing from his past gets in the way of Noriko’s marriage. He visits his old colleague Matsuda , who has been ill, in the Arakawa district. Matsuda tells him that he will be sure to say only kind things about Ono, but advises that he seek out his former pupil Kuroda, if he is concerned about the investigation.

The second set of recollections are recorded in April 1949 and center around Noriko’s miai, a formal meeting between two families who are considering marrying their children. Ono first describes how he has a falling-out with Shintaro, who asks him to write to a potential employer and tell them that Shintaro disagreed with Ono about work they did together during the war. Ono says that it may seem that he was harsh with Shintaro, but explains that Shintaro’s visit occurred only a few days after the miai .

Ono describes Noriko’s bad mood and incivility to him in the weeks leading up to the miai , and says that Noriko does not know all that he is doing to make sure her wedding goes ahead. For instance, Ono goes to visit Kuroda. He is let into Kuroda’s apartment by Kuroda’s protégé, Enchi , who mistakes Ono for someone else. When Enchi realizes Ono’s true identity, he asks Ono to leave, saying that he is sure Kuroda would not want to see the man who is responsible for his having been beaten and injured in prison and labeled a traitor.

At the miai, Ono drinks quickly and is made uncomfortable by the stilted conversation. Eventually, he interrupts the flow of conversation to make a declaration that he can admit that he made mistakes with some of the work he did and may have been a bad influence in the country. He thinks that Taro’s father, an art expert named Dr. Saito, approves of his statement. After that, the conversation loosens up and it seems clear that Noriko and Taro like one another.

The third set of Ono’s recollections is recorded in November 1949 and centers around another visit Setsuko and Ichiro pay to the family some months after Noriko is married to Taro Saito. During a walk in Kawabe Park, Setsuko says to Ono that she was concerned to hear that he has compared himself to a composer who wrote highly influential nationalist songs during the war and recently committed suicide to atone for his role encouraging the bloodshed. Ono tries to reassure his daughter that he is not considering suicide, but she says other things that he finds upsetting. Setsuko says that he did beautiful work, but it was not at all responsible for influencing anything during the war. Ono points out that, the previous year, she had seemed to think his career a great liability in Noriko’s marriage negotiations. Setsuko says she does not remember any such conversation. Ono is shocked and points out that he made a statement during the miai as a result of her comment. Setsuko says that Noriko and the Saitos all found his declaration very puzzling. Ono defends his statement as appropriate, explaining that Dr. Saito was familiar with his wartime work and seemed to appreciate hearing that his position had changed. Setsuko says that she believes that Dr. Saito was not even aware that Ono was an artist.

Later that day, Ono takes his grandson Ichiro on an outing and promises that he will get Ichiro a taste of sake that night at dinner. That night at the home of newlyweds Noriko and Taro, Ono tries to convince Setsuko to allow Ichiro to taste some sake, but Setsuko refuses. During the dinner, the younger generation discusses how happy they are with the new American-style leadership at the corporations where they work. After Ichiro goes to bed, Ono says to Taro that it is a shame that Dr. Saito and he were not better acquainted sooner, since they both worked in the art world and knew one another’s reputations. Taro agrees with this and Ono looks to see how Setsuko is responding, but she does not seem to register this at all.

Ono intersperses a variety of reflections about his past in his account of this conversation with Setsuko and his reactions to it. He recalls the moment sixteen years before when he moved into his home and, he says, Dr. Saito approached him and said how glad he was to have an artist of his stature in the neighborhood.

He also looks back further into his past, recalling his relationship with a fellow artist nicknamed the Tortoise , who worked with him at Master Takeda ’s firm in 1913 or 1914, producing Japanese paintings for export to foreigners. When Ono gets an offer to go to live and study at the villa of the prestigious artist Mori-san , the Tortoise comes with him. Over the next seven years, Ono adopts Mori-san’s style of painting and becomes Mori-san’s prize pupil. But in the early 1920s, Ono gets to know Matsuda, a nationalist art appreciator, who convinces him to take a different direction in his art. The Tortoise is horrified at Ono’s disloyalty to Mori-san’s methods, and Mori-san tells Ono that he must leave the villa. Ono reflects how gratifying it was that, in later years, his own career took off, and Mori-san’s declined.

The final set of recollections is set in June 1950. Ono reveals that he has learned of Matsuda’s death and recounts the visit he paid to Matsuda the month before. On this visit, he tells Matsuda that both Noriko and Setsuko are now pregnant and that it will soon be five years since his wife Michiko ’s death. Matsuda says that they were two ordinary men who made a marginal contribution, but Ono says that he believes Matsuda actually feels proud of his life’s work. Ono compares himself and Matsuda to the Tortoise to Shintaro, saying that he and Matsuda can be proud to have boldly tried to do something ambitious that they believed in, while the Tortoise and Shintaro have never tried to rise above mediocrity.

Ono also describes how the area that used to be the pleasure district is now full of office buildings. He sits in a bench outside one of these buildings and looks at the enthusiastic young office workers, whom he wishes well.

Mod B – An Artist of the Floating World – Essay

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Resource Description

Investigate the relationship between Ono and his father in Kazuo Ishiguro’s  novel ​An Artist of the Floating World.

Intro:Kazuo Ishiguro’s interest in relationships is at the forefront of his novel, ​An Artist of  the Floating World​. Masuji Ono, the protagonist, narrates memories spanning his  artistic aspirations, work as a propaganda artist and retirement. As he reflects on  interactions both recent and from years ago, one particular relationship is of interest.  Ono’s uncomfortable interaction with his father is marked by aloofness, subtle  dialogue and pressuring expectations. Through Ono, Ishiguro portrays behaviour  that imitates and responds to these interactions, demonstrating the formative effect  past relationships can have on a person’s present.

Ono’s father is reserved, even aloof – much like Ono. This is evident in his response to Ono’s artistic aspirations: ‘I’ve heard a curious thing from your mother.’ He expresses himself in a conservative manner to begin with, concealing the aversion that only surfaces as he comes to realise that Ono’s ambitions may be serious. It is worthwhile to note that he receives this news from his wife, not from Ono himself. Perhaps his ignorance is due to a lack of communication with his son; perhaps Ono withheld the information out of fear. If the latter, this would be justified. Ono’s father considers professional painting ‘a curious thing’. The adjective suggests that he does not consider it valuable, a suggestion confirmed by his later words. In the absence of dialogue between Ono and his father, Ono’s mother has to take on the role of communicator. As Ono narrates past events though, there is no other voice to provide missing information or a differing opinion. There is an obscurity to Ono’s story reminiscent of the father character. Ono decides not to ‘worry Noriko with details’ about his efforts concerning her marriage negotiations. It is similar to his omission to inform the reader of the emotions he must have suffered when his father burnt his paintings. The lack of communication modelled in his childhood is partially continued by Ono. This parallel suggests that his father has influenced him.

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