Masuji Ono's Jiminy Cricket

What is “conscience”? Is it our sense of moral obligation (moral being the keyword here)? Is it the voice we hear in the back of our mind, attempting to keep us out of trouble? I often picture Jiminy Cricket, the little green critter from Pinocchio, floating down from the sky under his tiny umbrella when I hear the word “conscience.” Masuji Ono has changed this for me. Through the morally gray tendencies of Kazuo Ishiguro’s narrator in An Artist of the Floating World, the traditional perceptions of right and wrong are challenged to an exasperatingly narrow degree.

Masuji Ono was admired for his ethereal portrayal of women in the Utamaro tradition (140-141), but after a walk through the city’s poorer neighborhood, Ono questioned the purpose of his efforts. He wanted to “produce paintings of genuine importance…Work that [would] be a significant contribution to the people of [his] nation” (163). While Ono assures his mentor, Mori-san, that his “conscience” is urging the change (180), the reader is not given any further evidence that this is the case.

From this desire came works such as “Complacency,” the inspiration for which arose from a group of boys supposedly torturing an animal in the street with sticks. The fact that this terrible scene could result in a piece that Ono once prized -- though now dismisses as “unsophisticated” (167-168) -- dares readers to question his morality.

On the contrary, after Ono’s career change is made, it appears that his conscience is no longer an issue. It is difficult for readers to sympathize with a character who is willing to turn a former student in to the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities (182). Heartstrings are tugged, though, when Ono is confronted with the smell of burning paintings at Kuroda’s house; this smell harks back to a similar incident in his own youth. Ono’s father once called him into the reception room, requesting he bring his paintings with him. Later, a burnt odor lingered in the room, but Ono found no hard evidence that his paintings had been burned (44). However, as Ono “stared again at the smouldering pile in the middle of [Kuroda’s] yard,” and commented on the “unnecessary” actions being taken (183), it is all too easy to conclude that Kuroda was Ono’s unwilling sacrificial lamb.