It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it.

The chief conflict deals with Ono's need to accept responsibility for his past actions, rendered politically suspect in the context of post-War Japan.

It is also considered global literature on account of its broad international market and its theme of how the world today is interconnected.

[2] Originally published in 1986, An Artist of the Floating World was named the Whitbread Book of the Year Award[3] and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

[7] Ishiguro was inspired to write An Artist of the Floating World, after tangentially treating a similar theme in his first novel A Pale View of Hills, which included an old teacher character, who has to rediscover and invent his own morals.

[7] Ishiguro's childhood of moving countries and subsequently not feeling completely 'at home' led him to write in a globalised and international way, through which he explored his own background and heritage.

[7] The novel's title is based on the literal translation of Ukiyo-e, a word referring to the Japanese art of prints.

His master experiments with innovative softer Western-style painting techniques, rejecting the hard black outlining that was considered more traditional.

The novel is set in three distinctly different years, although Ono's memories go back to his own childhood, when his father opposed his wish to become an artist.

The book is written in the first person and hinges on the exclusive use of a single, unreliable narrator, expressing a viewpoint which the reader identifies as limited and fallible, without any other voice or point of view acting as a test.

For example, Ono's descriptions of his pictures focus on pictorial technique, mentioning the subjects as if they were unimportant, although they reveal the propagandistic nature of his work.

Similarly, when Ono narrates an episode in which he was confronted with the results of his activities as a police informer, it is debatable whether his attempt to mitigate the brutality of the police is a retrospective fabrication devised to avoid his own responsibility, or whether he actually did disapprove of the treatment of the person he had denounced, distancing himself from his actions and refusing to recognise the abusive treatment as a direct and foreseeable consequence of those actions.

After rejecting his early studies with Mori-San, Ono works with the nationalist government in the creation of wartime paintings and become the lauded subject of prizes.

[11] She is somewhat bitter to Ono at the beginning of the novel as she suspects her father's past has led to her original marriage arrangement being cancelled.

She and Ono have a solid relationship and she helps him throughout the marriage arrangement proceedings and dealing with his guilt post-war; she acts as his listener.

To Ono, Ichiro can be confusing and alienating owing to his adoption of Western culture, including some English words and an obsession with cowboys, the movie Godzilla, and eating spinach for strength (a reference to Popeye).

[13] Nakahara, also referred to as 'The Tortoise' due to his slow painting, is a friend of Ono's during his youthful days at Mori-san's villa.

The analysis of these themes is facilitated through their transcendence of time, allowing the audience's rumination on Ono's experiences, permitting them to judge the narrative objectively.

[15] Among the themes explored in this novel are arranged marriage, the changing roles of women, and the declining status of "elders" in Japanese society since 1945.

[citation needed] Art is a central theme of the novel, with Ono's role as a propaganda artist being the chief story line.

[17] When Ono recounts interactions with family members, events are often referred to indirectly, or with incomplete information, disguising the truth of what has occurred.

[17] Masuji Ono repeatedly reassesses events from his past throughout the novel, which suggests that he is constantly reconsidering his guilt about his actions and ultimately rethinking both the role of propaganda and the construction of memories.

There is a conflict between actions and culpability created through Ono's inability to take responsibility for the political aspects of his past work.

An Artist of the Floating World makes reference to the liability of leaders after the war and how many of them were not held responsible, a group from which the narrator implicitly disassociates himself.

This is done by placing emphasis on the reader to take responsibility in the determining the ending of the novel; is Ono guilty of his actions or is he simply exaggerating his importance and role in the war?

[17] They further facilitate Ono taking responsibility for his past actions, as well as allowing him to reconsider the changing values of Japan as perhaps being positive.