Tree spirits grass spirits / Hiromi Ito ; translated by Jon L. Pitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Itō, Hiromi, 1955- author.

Contributor:

Pitt, Jon L., translator.

Language:

English

Japanese

Subjects (All):

Plants--California.

Plants.

Plants--Japan.

Japanese literature.

Japanese--21st century--History and criticism.

Japanese.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xiv, 170 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY: Nightboat Books, [2023]

Language Note:

In English, translated from the Japanese.

Summary:

"A collected series of intertwined poetic essays written by acclaimed Japanese poet Hiromi Ito--part nature writing, part travelogue, part existential philosophy. Written between April 2012 and November 2013, Tree Spirits Grass Spirits adopts a non-linear narrative flow that mimics the growth of plants, and can be read as a companion piece to Ito's beloved poem "Wild Grass on the Riverbank". Rather than the vertiginously violent poetics of the latter, Tree Spirits Grass Spirits serves as what we might call a phyto-autobiography: a recounting of one's life through the logic of flora. Ito's graciously potent and philosophical prose examines immigration, language, gender, care work, and death, all through her close (indeed, at times obsessive) attention to plant life."-- Provided by Amazon.

Ito's book-- part nature writing, part travelogue, part existential philosophy-- adopts a non-linear narrative flow that mimics the growth of plants. Discussing both the flora of the California desert and Kumaoto, Japan, her essays provide a recounting of one's life through the logic of flora. Ito's philosophical prose examines immigration, language, gender, care work, and death, all through her close (indeed, at times obsessive) attention to plant life. -- adapted from Amazon info and back cover

Contents:

The plants in my front yard

Eucalyptus tobacco party

The Black Monk carries a glossy parasol - Grass, wildflowers

Living trees and dying trees

Mount Fujis and arboreal giants

At war with mold

Summer grass

Why I killed the pampas grass

Respective autumns

Look, look! It's a cactus skeleton!

The miraculous Welwitschias of Berlin

The Amakusa Nishibira Camellia Park

Baobab dream

Eucrypta came walking

Covered in grass, I slept

Steam, Unohana, Mimami Aso

Kudzu-san

Arexa kawaransis

A declaration of religious faith: to all the ex-Taxodiaceae

Traveling with Seitaka-awadachisō

Flora, fauna, afterword.

Notes:

Originally published as Kodama kusadama by Iwanami Shoten.

ISBN:

9781643621920

1643621920

OCLC:

1400202595

Publisher Number:

99995052283