Becoming Botanical: Plant Life in Modern Japan

About this episode

The episode features Jon Pitt discussing his book on the relationship between humans and plants in modern Japan.

This month we sat down with Jon Pitt to discuss his new book "Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan." The book spans Japanese writers and filmmakers from the 1930s to today whose works all ask a similar question: What would it mean for humans to be more like plants? Looking at the ways that this question informed critiques of colonialism and even today immigration in these works, Pitt labels how these authors take up the plasticity of plants "becoming botanical." This episode is a great companion piece to our last episode with Rachel DiNitto on Japanese Ecocinema! For more of Jon Pitt: Email: jpitt@uci.edu ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette Alex Tischer: @ak_tischer If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded August 22nd, 2025 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

People in this episode

Hosts: Lindsay Jolivette, Alex Tischer

Guest: Jon Pitt

Topics covered

• Botanical imagination
• Japanese literature
• Ecocinema
• Colonialism
• Immigration
• Plant life

Keywords

• Japan
• plants
• literature
• ecology
• colonialism
• immigration
• film

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ASLE EcoCast

Books & works: Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan

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