Mistakes We Make

When was the last time you have made a bad decision you regretted? Did you step up and take responsibility? Or argue that you made the decision in good faith? Making a mistake is a natural phenomenon that we humans make on a daily basis and is a process that we need in order to learn. However, some mistakes are hard to judge. Mistakes can be made either intentionally or accidentally, and both can either be good or bad. But when a mistake is made in “good faith” it is difficult to take responsibility for it, as a bad mistake.

This is what Masuji Ono, a nostalgic character in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel called An Artist of the Floating World, faces when he, in his own mind, believes that he acted out in good faith to help out his pupil. Although, from the beginning of the novel Ono explains himself as a highly respected person worth honoring with great credibility. “…I have never at any point in my life been very aware of my own social standing, and even now, I am often surprised afresh when some event, or something someone may say, reminds me of their rather high esteem in which I am held.” (Ishiguro 19). But during his youngest daughter Noriko’s wedding negotiation along with to much alcohol he consumed, Ono hinted a truth about him that he long kept secret while talking to Dr. Saito, his daughter’s future father-in-law. Ono states, “…All I can say is that at the time I acted in good faith. I believed in all sincerity I was achieving good for my fellow countrymen. But as you see, I am not now afraid to admit I was mistaken.” (Ishiguro 123-124). At the time he doesn’t go into detail of whom and what he is talking about, he later reveals a memory of the occasion he betrayed his pupil Mr. Kuroda by turning Mr. Kuroda into the police, his way of teaching his pupil a lesson. During the dilemma, Ono converses with a fellow officer saying, “I had no idea…something like this would happen. I merely suggested to the committee someone come round and give Mr. Kuroda a talking to for his own good.” (Ishiguro 183).

Ono’s idea of teaching his pupil a lesson escalated into a situation which he did not intend to happen. To his content, he believed he acted out in “good faith” as he described during his daughter’s marriage negotiation while conversing with Dr. Saito. However, his ability to live up to the responsibility that he had contributed to a great deal with Mr. Kuroda’s arrest and to his humiliation during prison was, in my opinion, really noble like of him. During a conversation with an old friend of Ono’s, Matsuda, he revels that he had come to terms of the mistakes he had made. Both Ono and his friend Matsuda seemed to reason with their mistakes they now realized that they both made, and admits to the narrow mindset they both had before the war. Ono says in response to Matsuda, “…But if we’d seen things a little more clearly, then the likes of you and me, Matsuda- who knows? –we may have done some real good.” (Ishiguro 199).

In this novel, I believe Ono clearly makes a bad choice by turning his pupil into the police, and later claiming he made the decision in “good faith” in effort to distance himself from the situation. However, towards the end of the novel, it felt like Ono came around and took responsibility for his decision. It seems as though at the end, Ono made a good choice and accepted the new paradigm shift.

Like Ono, we all make mistakes. Some of them we hope in “good faith” that they do turn out positive. But whatever the outcome of the decision, more important is taking responsibility of the choices that you make. Confronting a mistake is what allows us to move forward with our lives.