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Paper short abstract

This presentation, accompanied by a filmed visual sequence inspired by kamishibai, reinterprets Japanese fairy tale “Melon Princess” by shifting focus from the human-centred plot to the way the tale intertwines the lives of various kinds of plants with those of other natural and supernatural beings.

Paper long abstract

Melons, persimmons, yams, arrowroot, buckwheat, and cogon grass, plants which have long been used for food, tools, and other purposes in Japan, appear at crucial moments in the narrative of “Melon Princess,” a Japanese fairy tale about a girl born from a melon and adopted by an old couple. Despite the centrality of plants, however, the tale has been usually related to the tale type “The Three Oranges” (ATU 408) through the motif of False Bride, an interpretation which focuses on human beings’ actions and intentions in a human society. This paper, in contrast, pays attention to the way the tale intertwines the lives of various kinds of plants with those of other natural and supernatural beings and reinterprets the tale as an origin tale in a wider sense, a tale that aims to explain in the narrative form the wonders of nature and multispecies entanglements. This shift of focus helps us become more attentive to stories of vegetal lives as agents, re-storying the world as a more just, multispecies place.

Accompanying the textual presentation and inspired in part by Japanese kamishibai (storytelling picture-cards), will be a filmed visual sequence that re-interprets plant-human entanglements in the “Melon Princess”; from a more plant-centred perspective. This new interpretation of the tale will weave together visual narrative and ecological speculation, inviting viewers on a journey into a less anthropocentric story-world that proposes more sustainable ways of living, for multispecies co-existence.