[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-148080-en":3,"doc-seo-148080-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},148080,2336475104042,"Tawan","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c32af1715be0?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786537525561427321",2,"Literature","Nature in Verse and Print - Ecocritical Discourses in Japanese Art Forms - Article","Ecocriticism emerged in the United States in the 1990s and, despite its global growth, still privileges Western epistemologies of “nature,” often defining nature against culture. This article reframes ecocritical reading through Edo-period Japan and its worldview shizen, the “self-so” unfolding of phenomena that includes cultivated, inhabited spaces. Close readings of haiku and ukiyo-e show how seasonal motifs and devices such as kigo and hon’i operate in social performance contexts while sharpening attentiveness to the more-than-human world.","KEYWORDS  \nEcocriticism  \nMore-than-human-world Japanese Art Works Naturescapes  \nARTICLE  \nNature in Verse and Print: Ecocritical Discourses in Japanese Art Forms  \nCynthia W. N. Lam  \nWestern University, Canada  \nABSTRACT  \nEcocriticism emerged in the United States in the 1990s and, despite its global growth, still largely privileges Western epistemologies of “nature,” often defined against culture. This article contributes a reframing by turning to Edo-period Japan and its worldview later articulated asshizen —the “self-so” unfolding of phenomena that includes cultivated and inhabited spaces —toreframe how human–nonhuman relations can be read. Through close readings of selected haiku and ukiyo-e, I show how seasonal motifs and conventional devices (e.g., kigo, hon’i) operated within social, performative contexts while also cultivating attentiveness to the more-than-human world. Rather than treating plants, animals, and weather as neutral contexts or mere metaphors, these works stage dual relationality: they mediate encounters between humans and nonhumansand simultaneously enact bonds among human actors (poets, hosts, viewers, patrons). To theorize this doubleness, I bring mono-no-aware, a cultivated sensitivity to impermanence, into dialogue with Spinoza’s affect theory by arguing that poems and prints function as affective events that recalibrate what bodies can perceive and do. The goal is not to claim Edo art as proto-environmentalist, but to pluralize ecocritical method by holding cultural coding and ecological perception together. Read through shizen, haiku and ukiyo-e model situated practices of attention that unsettle nature/culture binaries and expand ecocriticism beyond its AngloEuropean foundations.  \nEcokritike, vol. 3, no. 1, 2026, 176—195 . [https://doi.org/10.33823/eke.2025.3.1.41](https://doi.org/10.33823/eke.2025.3.1.417. 176)[7](https://doi.org/10.33823/eke.2025.3.1.417. 176)[.](https://doi.org/10.33823/eke.2025.3.1.417. 176)[ 176](https://doi.org/10.33823/eke.2025.3.1.417. 176)  \n1. Cheryll Glotfelty, “Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis,” in The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (University of Georgia Press, 2009), xvii–xx.  \n2. Greg Garrard, Ecocriticism: The New Critical Idiom, 3rd ed.  \n(Routledge, 2023), x.  \n3. Simon C. Estok, “Partial Views: An Introduction to East Asian,”in East Asian Ecocriticisms: A Critical Reader, ed. Simon C. Estok and Won-Chung Kim (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 4.  \n4. Kate Soper, “The Discourses of Nature,” in Ecocriticism: The Essential Reader, ed. Ken Hiltner (Routledge, 2015), 267.  \n5. Fumio Nanjō, “Foreword,” in Sensing Nature: Rethinking the Japanese Perception of Nature, ed. Tokujin Yoshioka, Taro Shinoda, and Takashi Kuribayashi (Mori Art Museum, 2010), 8–9.  \n6. Masami Yuki, “On Harmony with Nature: Toward Japanese Ecocriticism,” in Ecocriticism in Japan, ed. Wake Hisaaki, Suga Keijirō, and Masami Yuki (Lexington Books, 2018), 1–20.  \n7. Federico Marcon, Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan (University of Chicago Press, 2015), 17.  \nNature in Verse and Print: Ecocritical Discourses in Japanese Art Forms  \nCynthia W. N. Lam  \nIntroduction  \nEcocriticism emerged as an interdisciplinary field dedicated to exploring the relationship between literature, culture and the Earth’s environment.1,2 While its early development was shaped by Anglo-American literary criticism and Western philosophy, the field has since gradually evolved into a global scholarship with researchers across diverse cultural and geographical contexts. However, despite contributions from multiracial and transnational scholars to broaden its horizons, ecocriticism remains predominantly shaped by Western epistemologies and continues to privilege Anglo-European perspectives in its knowledge production.3 This framework imposesa universal understanding of nature by obscuring other traditions i","cbCaiuiaM6DSh6G3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuiaM6DSh6G3","pdf",1392761,1,20,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Ecocriticism’s Western epistemic privilege\n## Japan as a site for ecocritical inquiry\n## Shizen as an alternative framework","[{\"question\":\"What central problem does the article identify in mainstream ecocriticism?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that ecocriticism often privileges Western epistemologies of “nature,” treating nature and culture through a binary that obscures other traditions of human–nonhuman relations.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article use the concept of shizen to reframe ecocritical reading?\",\"answer\":\"It turns to Edo-period Japan and shizen (“self-so” unfolding of phenomena) to show how cultivated and inhabited spaces are part of how relationships between humans and nonhumans can be read.\"},{\"question\":\"Which Japanese art forms does the article analyze, and what do they help reveal?\",\"answer\":\"It examines haiku and ukiyo-e to show how seasonal motifs and conventional devices function within social, performative contexts while cultivating attentiveness to the more-than-human world.\"}]","Nature in Verse and Print - Ecocritical Discourses in Japanese Art Forms - Article | PDF",1787774776,31,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"nature-in-verse-and-print-ecocritical-discourses-in-japanese-art-forms-article","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/nature-in-verse-and-print-ecocritical-discourses-in-japanese-art-forms-article/148080/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-03","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What central problem does the article identify in mainstream ecocriticism?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It argues that ecocriticism often privileges Western epistemologies of “nature,” treating nature and culture through a binary that obscures other traditions of human–nonhuman relations.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the article use the concept of shizen to reframe ecocritical reading?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It turns to Edo-period Japan and shizen (“self-so” unfolding of phenomena) to show how cultivated and inhabited spaces are part of how relationships between humans and nonhumans can be read.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Which Japanese art forms does the article analyze, and what do they help reveal?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It examines haiku and ukiyo-e to show how seasonal motifs and conventional devices function within social, performative contexts while cultivating attentiveness to the more-than-human world.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality","religion-spirituality",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]