Partly it was moral: the fear of art being turned into propaganda (as he saw happen with some of his fellow artists who became poster-makers for the war machine). Partly the reason was political: an apprehension-abstracted from the way his fellow art students treated their teacher, their sensei-that blind submission to authority was too easily achieved. But why Ono stopped painting, stopped the trajectory of his obviously very great talent, remains the central question. Thereafter, he lives a semi-tranquil life with his family-a wife, grown daughters, even a grandson-and seems to have made peace with his renunciation (although occasionally his ego still finds itself craving artistic recognition). Set in the years immediately after WW II in Japan, Ishiguro's novel bears down upon a Japanese painter, Ono, now middle-aged, who has totally renounced his art, who decided (some years before) to make no more.
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