When it comes to Ukiyoe- pop art , the first name that will come up is the name of a Japanese artist, Takato Yamamoto. Relatively unknown outside of Japan, there is a brilliance to his highly detailed illustrations that combine tight line work with moments of ukiyo-e, eroticism, ghostly images, and surrealism. Dark and gloomy, with emotionless faces, the characters beautiful colors seem helpless, almost soft and doll-like in their positions. Takato has a fantastic imagination, and he is advancing the dynamics of his stylistic approach. I am a great fan of this genre, and I must say I find his work simply amazing and breathtaking.

He was born in Akita Prefecture and graduated from the painting department of the Tokyo Zokei University. He experimented with the Ukiyo-e Pop style. He drew illustrations for commercial advertising, mainly in the 1980s after graduating from art university. After that , he further refined and developed his Ukiyo-e Pop style to create his "Heisei Estheticism" style, producing illustrations for mainly esthetic novels, fantasy novels, sensual novels, and period novels, and he also did cover paintings for cultural magazines and hardback books, and publicity illustrations for commercial media.  

When it comes to inspiration , Takato says that his basic theme is the image of the universe operation that has repeated the circulating generation (life) and dismantlement (death). He expresses symbolically the image to be a man's body as the main motif, while taking the image of a plant, an insect, and other various objects. This young Japanese painter and illustrator has managed to create a world of stunning erotica and seduction. Genderless bodies can be found intertwined in scenes cloaked in brilliant colors and executed to perfection. He has published four books so far , and has had a great number of exibitons. You can visit his official website here , read about his most recent work and maybe buy some of his amazing paintings.