What's Up with Ono?

Our Ono is a retired Japanese artist, who is also a father, grandfather and widower.  What has he been up to and what is being hidden from us, the readers of this fine novel?

Masuji Ono is the main character of Kazuo Ishiguro’s book titled, “An Artist of the Floating World”.  He is an artist of the Ukiyo-e genre, meaning floating world.  He was student and then master of this style. 

His story takes place after World War II with him sharing reminiscences of his days before the war.   Many of his paintings involved subjects from the pleasure district just across the Bridge of Hesitation, near his home in Japan.  Within the pleasure district, there were geisha houses, theatres and bars.  Ono’s favorite haunt, Migi-Hidari, belonged to Mrs. Kawakami.  It was there he would go to drink with the “elite” of his school:  Kuroda, Murasaki and Tanaka. (24)

Ono and his younger daughter now live in a house acquired from the family of Sugimura.  The imposing house was purchased at quite a discount, after an investigation of Ono deemed him to be of good character and achievement. (8)  It has suffered some damage from the war. 

This daughter, Noriko, is concerned about his welfare and continually comments on his moping about.  She tells her older sister, Setsuko, “Father takes a lot of looking after now he’s retired.  You’ve got to keep him occupied or he starts to mope.”  She’s concerned that he no longer acts as a tyrant, ordering them around.  (13) 

It seems there is more going on than we know.  The daughters behave in a most peculiar way when caught unawares by their father as he moves about the house.  They immediately stop talking or quickly change the subject whenever he wanders into proximity.  (51) 

Odd behavior is something we see also in his son-in-law, Suichi when Ono’s son, Kenji, is laid to rest at the cemetery.  Suichi reacts with distress and what could be anger.  Setsuko explains to her father, “Suichi identifies very much with the likes of Kenji.  He says it so easily could have been him.”  (57)  Suichi and Kenji were soldiers in the charge over a minefield where Kenji lost his life.  Suichi has come to understand that the charge was unnecessary.  The Japanese lost the war.

Ono seems to be just as confused by the odd behavior as we, the readers, are.  He seems to float in and out of his memories not giving us a definite idea of what’s in his mind and what’s real.  We get the sense that he is not telling us the entire story.