Research Catalog

Title

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

Author

Itō, Hiromi, 1955-

Publication

• New York, NY: Nightboat Books, [2023]
• ©2023

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Pitt, Jon L.

Description

xiv, 170 pages; 21 cm

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."--
• 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

Uniform Title

Kodama kusadama. English

Alternative Title

Kodama kusadama.

Subject

• Plants > California
• Plants > Japan
• Japanese literature
• Japanese > 21st century > History and criticism
• Littérature japonaise
• Japonais > 21e siècle > Histoire et critique

Note

• Originally published as Kodama kusadama by Iwanami Shoten.

Language (note)

• In English, translated from the Japanese.

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.

ISBN

• 9781643621920
• 1643621920

LCCN

99996194315

OCLC

• on1400202595
• 1400202595
• SCSB-14686087

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries