Borderwork and National Identity in Two Plays by Kamisato Yudai: +51 Aviación, San Borja and The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaiso

Abstract: The myth of Japanese ethnic homogeneity is challenged by the texts and performances of these two plays by Kamisato Yudai: +51 Aviación, San Borja (2015) and The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaiso (2017). The autobiographical yet also playfully surrealistic Aviación stages national borders as constitutive of a variety of Latin American-Japanese and Japanese-Latin American identities. By contrast, Valparaiso both wonders at the existing blurriness of some borders and deconstructs others, not just among countries or regions or national identities, but also among stylistic and even metaphysical borders. This blurring of borders transcends a hybrid-like fusion of Japanese with Latin American identities to create a kaleidoscopic universe in which identities and borders are multiple and constantly shifting rather than stable and homogeneous. While Aviación expands Japanese identity to include people who were exiled from Japan, Okinawans who emigrated from their homeland, and Japanese citizens who were born outside of its national boundaries, Valparaiso depicts many kinds of borders and identities as difficult, if not impossible, to delineate clearly. Chris Rumford's concept of "borderwork," conducted by ordinary citizens rather than nation-states, illuminates how these plays, and theatre more broadly, can redraw, blur, or erase borders, thus complicating notions of national identities.