Masuji Ono - the main character and the story teller

        In the book “An Artist of the Floating World”, the main character is Masuji Ono. However, in my opinion, he's not only the main character of the book; he is also the story teller. He uses his narrative to tell us what is going on in his world. Actually, we are very welcomed to his story since it is easy to enter the story when we read the book. I was like standing just next to him listen his story. At the same time, I could also imagine how his surrounding world looked like while I was reading. I really like this kind of style since it's very easy to attract the readers to enter to the story. It makes the reader has a similar feeling as he does.

        While I was reading the first paragraph, I really wanted to know who Masuji Ono is, what kind of person he is? There were several questions that rose in my mind. When I kept reading, I learnt that he is a proud man in his mind, but he would never appear that he is really proud of himself. He always appears as humble and unaware of his status. He says “I am not, nor have I ever been, a wealthy man.” From this sentence, I thought that he must be talking about money since he is really a rich man in the story. He has a big beautiful. Also, he has been a respectful man due to his skill as an artist. Even though the war has changed his family's life, he still has something that people are envy of, such as his house and his art skill. However, I do not think his idea of wealth is about the money. I think his idea of wealth is from his father and the “business meetings”. He learnt a lot about money and finances, and he was told that they were the only form of wealth when he was a child. Even though he tries to not follow his father's way, his father's traits can be still seen on him.

        In fact there can be many questions that rose for Mr. Ono. For example, why did he decide to stop painting? Although he has mentioned in the book that he retired because of his age, I think that should not be the main reason for him to decide retires because we can see that painting is much of his hobby. Like some professional soccer players, even though they already reach the retired age, they still wish to have a new contract from their soccer club since a new contract can extend the time that they play for the club. Why do they want to have more time play for the club? Because they enjoying being as a professional soccer player because soccer is most of their hobby. Back to Mr. Ono's case, as I just mention, painting is his hobby. It is weird that he does not paint anymore after he retired. My question is “Has he lost interest on painting?” or “Are there any other reasons that make him decide to retire? “ In fact, he's still enthusiastic in art, especially when he teaches his grandson, Ichiro, how to draw.

        Actually, Mr. Ono is such an old-fashioned person. Even though the world around him is changing, he still believes in the old ways. His grandson, Ichiro, is getting Americanized since he wants to become a cowboy However, Mr. Ono still wants him to become a Samurai or become other Japanese hero. In fact, Mr. Ono is trying to catch up the world. However, he is catching too slowly since the world is moving too fast. AS the story goes on, I believe there will be more questions for us to come up. I really want to know why he decided to retire. I think the book will tell us in the later part of the story.