Previous
Mrs. Kawakami
A prominent, wealthy, and eccentric man who is very influential in the city where the novel takes place from 1913 until 1920. Sugimura attempts to enrich the city by establishing cultural institutions in Kawabe Park, but loses all his wealth in the early 1920s and cannot carry out his plans. Ono buys his house from the Sugimura family after Sugimura’s death and respects Sugimura’s boldness and ambition, which led him to rise above mediocrity, even if his plans ended in failure.
Akira Sugimura Quotes in An Artist of the Floating World
The An Artist of the Floating World quotes below are all either spoken by Akira Sugimura or refer to Akira Sugimura . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
November 1949
Quotes
Nevertheless, whenever I find myself wandering around Kawabe Park these days, I start to think of Sugimura and his schemes, and I confess I am beginning to feel a certain admiration for the man. For indeed, a man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if in the end he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions. It is my belief, furthermore, that Sugimura did not die an unhappy man. For his failure was quite unlike the undignified failures of most ordinary lives, and a man like Sugimura would have known this. If one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try, there is a consolation — indeed, a deep satisfaction — to be gained from this observation when looking back over one's life.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire An Artist of the Floating World LitChart as a printable PDF.
Akira Sugimura Character Timeline in An Artist of the Floating World
The timeline below shows where the character Akira Sugimura appears in An Artist of the Floating World. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
October 1948
...ever been, rich, and he acquires his large and elegant house in an unusual way. Akira Sugimura , a respected and influential man in the city, built it. After his death, his...
(full context)
November 1949
...nicest parks and holds a special interest for him because it was the site of Akira Sugimura ’s plans to leave his mark on the city. In 1920 or 1921, Sugimura (the...
(full context)
