From the beginning of the novel, we are given the impression that Ono is a humble artist who made a mistake and has been chewed out by the rest of society for it though they once admired him. However Ono is a senile old man who thinks too highly of himself and is arrogant enough to try and shoulder the blame for leading Japan into war. Through out the novel, it seems that Ono is outcast by society because of his patriotism during the war when in reality he is the one excluding himself from the world.
At one point in his life, Ono believed in the emperor and what he stood for. He believed in a strong Japan that would rise against its fat bureaucrats and prosper. However, before all of this, Ono was a mere artist of a “floating world” of entertainment and pleasure. While working under Mori Ono was content with living a life of indulgence without a care for the world, as Matsuda puts it at the end of the novel Ono had a “narrow artist's perspective” (199). It was Matsuda that turned Ono on to the idea of a corrupt and disgraced Japan that needed to be fixed. It was with the “Eyes to the Horizon” Ono finally embarked down his path to patriotism and stepped out of the floating world. The idea of a new Japan was impressed onto Ono in such a way that he saw it as his own, but when he lost his wife and son to the war, Ono could not help but feel responsible for their deaths because it was similar opinions to his that led to the war in the first place.
This feeling of guilt then ate Ono from the inside and eventually clawed itself to manifest in the real world. Ono feels guilty for the loss of his family and for that reason, he can't help but feel uncomfortable when he sees that his wife and son died in vain. Kenji died in Manchuria, trying to extend Japan's reach, Michiko died as a result of the war, both were the result of ideals that Ono believed in and that is why he feels as if he played a major part in everything that happened.
It seems that this feeling of guilt then drives Ono mad. He sees hate in the eyes of the new generation because he hates himself for supporting the movement that took everything from him. However, Ono can't bring himself to admit his self loathing, his pride won't allow it. Instead, Ono projects his attitude to the people around him. I didn't begin to realize this until Ono mentioned his conversation with Setsuko on pages 192 and 193. How can it be that Setsuko cannot recollect the conversation in which she warned her father of the past when we are given such a vivid account of it? The only answer that I can think of is that said conversation never happened anywhere outside of Ono. When reading the novel, we must keep in mind that everything is being filtered by Ono so it is entirely possible that the events he describes aren't completely accurate he himself even acknowledges this on several occasions. To me all of the pardons on Ono's behalf for digressing and for the accuracy of his words is a clear hint by Ishiguro that Ono might suffer some kind of memory loss and that we should not trust him, since he himself can't remember the events that influenced his life. On page 193 Setsuko even tells Ono, “no one has ever considered Father's past something to view with recrimination.” Yet earlier on in the novel, Setsuko is hell bent on reprimanding her father.
It is entirely possible that Ono's subconscious caused him to imagine such a conversation with Setsuko to help him come to grips with his feelings. By having someone else blame him, Ono can force himself to justify himself. The miai also gives Ono the excuse he needs to come clean with himself and admit his mistakes. Indeed, the family does seem awkward when Ono begins his rantings and his daughters comment on this later on, though it doesn't seem so to Ono. In fact, in Ono's eyes, it wasn't until his confession that the miai took a turn for the best. It's funny how no one else remembers it that way.
Matsuda, who in a way forced Ono to become involved with the new Japan, admits that they never played a crucial part in the whole ordeal. It was the Army officers, politicians, and businessmen that the people followed not a simple artist.
These two instances just caused me to think that Ono didn't play a big a role as he would have us believe and that the most important aspects of the novel are coping mechanisms for Ono to deal with the loss of life in his family. However, at the end, Ono finally crosses the bridge of hesitation and decides to move on with his life for had it not been for the war and the occupation of Japan who knows what would have happened to the small nation.
Well I have to end this somewhere, and this might not have made sense but it was just something that I thought about.
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Ono does admit that he has done wrong in the past by doing patriotic paintings that were to lead Japan into war and create a better future for the Japanese. As Matsuda points out, " In the Asian hemisphere, Japan stands like a giant amidst cripples and dwarfs. And yet we allow our people to grow more and more desperate, our little children to die of malnutrition." This shows that the fanatical idea of having an Imperial Japan in the near future would be the destiny for the coming Japanese generations, was instilled on Ono. As you mentioned about his painting , "Eyes of the Horizon", it depicts the suffering going around the lower parts of the Japanese society. Thus, he converts his painting to shows that the poor kids turn into Imperial soldiers , while the " politicians and business men", who enjoyed a good "floating world" before the war, now tend to hide from the reality of how Japan changed. In turn, after the defeat, Japan was never the same. Since the patriotic feeling left many Japanese, Ono feels as though he is one of those people who caused and influenced such a devastating blow to his country, but not only is he blamed, but he feels as a coward. Such emotions is brought up later on in the book when once again, Ono goes and visits Matsuda at his home. It shows that even though they helped spark such war, both artists' are able to sit once again and reminisce the days in which everything was to turn out for the better.
ReplyDeleteOne scene in the book that shows that they are grateful, yet feel bad about the outcome of the war was when the kid Botchan saw both men feeding Matsuda's carp. Ono says, " Today, he saw two men with sticks, standing by the pond." Just shows that their time has come to settle and let life take its course. The world has changed and so did the people. Everything is now to be in the hands of the future " Westernized" Japanese generations that are to come. All they can do is just sit back and watch. It's time for change.