As Japan progressed through several stages of development, so did its society.

Two books that are great examples for showing this shift are Musuis Story and An Artist of The Floating World. Musuis Story takes place during the Tokugowa period, during a time of peace and prosperity. An Artist of The Floating World, on the other hand, takes place much later, in the devastated scene that is the period following World War II. Both novels are narratives by aging men that detail what they each believe to be defining points in their lives. An aspect of society that these books are particularly good for demonstrating is the social norms, or the social freedom that a person may enjoy. More specifically, the norms of what a man was able to do, say, and how being associated with other people affected him. By analyzing the stories of Musui and Ono (the narrator in An Artist of the Floating World), it can be determined that the social freedom of a man was much lower in the period after WWII, than during the Tokugawa period. In order for quotes from the stories to be more understandable, lets begin with some additional background of the two novels. Musuis story is basically Musui, the narrator, describing his adventurous life and all the things he was able to achieve, beginning from his first fight as a child, to understanding what true righteousness is as old man, though during most of his life, his name is Katsu. An Artist of the Floating World is about a man named Ono, and his current life, with the causes being explained in flashbacks of his life as a prospering painter into a famous propaganda artist, well known for his ideals, into an infamous artist after Japans loss in World War II. Both narrators seem exaggerate to some extent in their tales as well, Musui describing himself as undefeated in fencing, and a master in horsemanship, while Ono talks about how his students always praised him frequently, and how he was constantly surprised throughout his life by the span of his reputation.

Of the three aspects of social freedom, the most visible one is probably reputation, or actually, the effect of reputation. In other words, how anyone associated to either Ono or Musui was affected during their lives. It seems that in Onos time period, reputations were taken much more seriously than during Musuis lifetime. For example, lets start with Musui. In addition to being of a samurai class, he makes a name for himself by helping lots of people out financially, by being an undefeated fencer, and once through his skill in horseback riding. Especially in the case of fencing, Musui gains a lot of followers, but at no point in the story whatsoever is there a mention of Musuis followers getting any recognition. In fact, reputation takes on a whole new meaning for Musui. Instead of his followers getting acknowledged, what really happens is that Musui is able to get a lot of help from them when needed, mostly just getting a place to sleep and eat. In one instance, Musui gets one of these followers to gather a lot of people for a party, and when the party happens, Musui is given full credit for putting it together, even though all the work others put in was the real result. Ono, on the flip side, builds his reputation without help from his past family, since his father was a business man, and was disappointed in Ono for pursuing painting. His claim to fame is being taught by esteemed artists , and then becoming not only a phenomenal painter, but also one with very attractive ideals. This causes his pupils in turn to become well known, so much in fact, that one of his pupils siblings receives a job because of that connection to Ono. Now, what really reveals the extent of Onos reputation is how his pupils are affected when he becomes infamous for his propaganda. What happens is that all his pupils become infamous as well, but some manage to escape only by declaring that they are breaking their ties with Ono. Sometimes this has to be done even just to secure a job as a high school teacher.[insert quote]. Another great example of the infamy that even Onos colleagues face is when one of his friends unknowingly describes being ignored. The significance of Onos pupils

falling in society is that even though they didnt do anything, they are degraded because of what someone whom they are not learning from anymore decided to take a new direction in art and paint propaganda because of his own personal beliefs. From a historical viewpoint, Onos era having much more significance placed on reputation seems valid. During the late 1940s, which is when Ono had reached infamy, japan was just in pieces, and still in shock from the atomic bombs, and the blame from anyone still around was put on Japans going to war in the first place, and Ono was the authority on nationalistic painting, and who spoke very nationalistically at his regular spot at the bar. On the contrary, Musui grew up of samurai class, so people already had some respect for him, plus his time was a peaceful time, when . Overall, there was a great increase in the effect of reputation from Musui to Ono, and it seems primarily because of the environment created in Musuis time in addition to the devastating impact of World War II. The next aspect of social freedom that experienced a radical change was the freedom to act. This term basically encompassed the things you could do that were socially acceptable and the nature of the consequences in the case that they werent. Though the transition here was not as noticeable as reputation, there was still a change, never the less. First well start with Musuis actions; he did a lot of, to say the least, crazy things in his life. From his first fight as a child, Musui kept getting into fights, even as an adult and its surprising that there was no lawful action taken against Musui. A handful of times Musui had also stayed for a while at peoples houses, only to wake up before them one day and grab some money then leave, essentially not only having robbed those people of money, but of time, effort, and trust. And yet he can return to these people, pay his debt and they are happy to be in his company again [insert quote]. Musuis

probably biggest offence that didnt receive consequence was pretending to be an official in order to stay at inn, heres his account: I rapped on the door of an inn. Let me stay for the night. Under official orders from the district administrator at Nirayama, we are not allowed to put up anyone traveling alone someone answered [] Are you telling me that a retainer in the service of Harima-no-kami of Mito cant stay at the inn on Tokaido? Ill have you know that I am on official business, entrusted with a request for prayers at Amanomiya Shrine in Totomi. But if thats what you say, I suppose I shall have to go back to the residence of the post road magistrate and take it up with him. Ill be leaving my baggage here in any case, so keep an eye on it, would you? I tossed my fencing gear through the door into the front room. At this several officers came out in a fluster and threw themselves in the earthen floor. Oh, if only we had known that you were from Harima-no-kamiplease forgive us for our rudeness I decided to press them further. (pg 63-64) This is the behavior that defined Musui in several parts of the book. He would make himself seem important by perfectly acting so, and then people would react to him accordingly as well, and thus he would actually hold the value he was bluffing. In the scene quoted above, Musui not only manages to be able to stay at an inn where hed regularly not be allowed, but he also has the respect of the staff, and after he presses them further, they give him free food, a free stay, and even offer him money as a condolence. By just acting important, Musui is able to completely flip the situation into where hes getting paid and fed to stay at the hotel. Whats more surprising than Musuis bluffing is how the people actually believe him. In Musuis era, the daimyo were powerful entities, and being a retainer meant that you had personal influence to the daimyo and if something wasnt to your liking, for example, the inn, you would just tell the daimyo, and the inn

would lose its reputation and people wouldnt stay there anymore. But the point to be understood here is that people would believe you if you acted like Musui (meaning if you pretended to be something other than yourself), because Musui seems to be the exception to regular society at his time, and therefore is able to get away with things like impersonation, because if hardly any people impersonate, its not expected and people like the inn keeper just believe him and fall to his feet. Now, in contrast to Musuis life is Onos experiences. The freedom of action for men in his time is more limited, and considerably weighted when compared to Musui. However, Ono sometimes seems to be an exception to this rule as well, like Musui, by occasionally showing signs of refusing to accept the damage his reputation has suffered. It is to be noted that even though Ono is consistently mentioned as an accomplished painter, none of his paintings are every seen by any of the characters, because since the paintings symbolize ideas, putting up a painting would be like broadcasting that idea, and since nationalism is looked down upon at that time, Ono doesnt put up any of his paintings, because he cant, otherwise his reputation will be lower even more. Also, at one point in the story, Ono goes to meet up with an old colleague of his, Kuroda, to discuss Onos daughters wedding situation, as to ask Kuroda if he could speak politely of his family if inquired by the other familys detective. But what ends up happening is that Ono is never really allowed to meet with Kuroda in the first place. At first when Ono reaches Kurodas apartment, he is greeted warmly by Kurodas protg, who says I dont suppose Mr. Kuroda will be long now. I beg you not to hurry away. (pg111, Ishiguro). But then when the protg asks Ono his name, and learns of his identity, his attitude quickly becomes cold, and after a pause, Ono inquires about Kurodas time of arrival, and this time the protg replies I will inform Mr. Kuroda of your visit. Perhaps he will write to you. and shows no indication of letting Mr. Kuroda meet Ono (pg112, Ishiguro). Another indication of weight that

actions held during this period is Onos creating a bar and then some, this time the effect being a positive one. As Ono tells it, he already had some influence in the arts committee of the state department, and asked them to construct a patriotic bar to celebrate Japan and its new attitude on the world and itself. And so this bar was constructed, and it became very popular, causing economy to flourish around it, and before long it became a famous social place, all thanks to a letter that Ono sent. So for Musui life is great, and easier to live without regrets since he can really do most of whatever he wants to do, while Ono walks a thin line between upholding up his true beliefs or conforming to society, and has to try and maintain neutral actions in order to satisfy himself and the people that know of him. This topic of social freedom of speech really breaks down into being all about reputation as well, and like with the first paragraph, Onos era is much more constraining in social freedom than Musuis. The last, and definitely not least, aspect of social freedom that was affected is the social freedom of speech. As shown previously, Musui usually just speaks whatever he wants, like when he posed as a retainer. Also, as a child Musui was very hateful of his grandmother, and expressed it vocally, something very rude, being disobedient of elders, especially because the traditional culture at the time was heavily influenced by Confucianism. And yet he got away with it, since the only person who was angered by his talking was his grandmother herself. Also, throughout his like, Musui freely offers advice, though sometimes things dont always work out when people follow his advice. Additionally, since he lies so often, trying to talk his way out of trouble, especially with his father, Musui is able to slip out, since his words dont really hold much weight anymore, and his father just lets him go no matter what he says. Now, for Ono, living in the era where people are defined by their ideas and ideals, what he says is influential to what people think of him. A prime example is norikos marriage negotiations, and the concept of

marriage detectives. They investigate a familys history and report to the family planning on getting associated with them by marriage. In the novel it is mentioned occasionally that Noriko had attempted a marriage in the past, but the other family pulled out just when things seemed like they were going to get married. And it seems that Ono goes out of his way to visit his friends to make sure they speak nicely of him and his family for the marriage negotiations, but in actuality, he is going to ensure that they will not speak highly of the ideas he used to publicly uphold. This minor difference holds importance because the detective places most of his conclusion on what people say, because though information can be found about people, opinions at that time mustve held considerable value. Probably the biggest show of the power of Onos speech is when he is able to get the sibling of one of his students to get a job. As Ono remembers it it must have been in 1935 or 1936, a very routine matter as I recall - a letter of recommendation to an acquaintance in the State Department, some such thing, but to his pupils brother, it was a pretty big deal, for when he got the job, he told Ono at his doorway, I will be grateful to you for the remainder of my life. I will exert every particle of my being to be worthy of your recommendation and on and on and on (pg20, Ishiguro). All of these examples also relate to reputation, and just like in the previous two paragraphs, Onos reputation and words had far more weight than Musuis for several reasons. And while Musui lied to many people in many places, every person to him was like a clean slate, and he could be whoever he wanted to them. On the flip side, Onos speech is cumulative, meaning when he talks one to a person, word spreads around, and when he speaks to another person, they judge him based off of what he was heard to have said before, and what he is saying currently. Now, some things to be kept in mind when comparing the two stories is that there are many factors that may fudge up the validity of the conclusion reached through examples that

proved that Onos actions, speech, and overall reputation had a heavier impact than that of Musuis. Some of these factors are that the stories take place in different places, different time, and most importantly, the main characters are of different a class and lifestyle. (Musui is a wandering samurai-talk about sense of identity) The location of the story matters, because Onos reputation was mostly concentrated in the area where he lived his whole life, whilst Musui lived out his life in many different places, traveling around, so of course his reputation was not as influential. The only thing about different time periods that would shake up the conclusion was also that Onos era took place right after WWII, and so the nation was in a terrible condition and people would be scared and suspicious. Being in a different social class also makes a huge difference because Ono was in a high class, almost a celebrity, and so it was natural that his reputation would carry weight. But Musui was in an odd situation, being of samurai class, but at the same time, being in a lower economical class, begging and sealing and appraising swords. To counter this, the two characters also had many common factors that made the conclusion more stable, like that both stories were auto-biographies, and the two characters stick to their beliefs for most of their lives and take on a more peaceful, apathetic view after retirement. Any way you look at it though, Ono lives a life where he has to be much more careful about his actions and speech than Musui does.