I have known Pay Katusyuki for many years. He is one of my favorite artists and musicians and he and his music appear in many of my videos. He is also a "Ramen-Man" and works as a Ramen Chef. So he is a triple-artist...ramen, music, and paint.

My 5th video introduces Pay, his work and what I think is his best song. He also appears in videos #16, #38 and #56. And his music appears in many others. I get emails from viewers every week asking how they can get Pay's "Sick of Recorder" CD but unfortunately it is out of print.

I just got a message from Pay saying that he has a new band, so I'm excited to hear his new music. He also has a lot of really handsome new paintings on his blog which I hope you will check out. If you watch the 5th video (linked above) from 2007, you will see that his work has changed and grown a lot since then.

Right now, Pay is looking for a gallery show outside of Japan.

One of the things I like about Pay's paintings is that they are very different from what people in the US expect from modern Japanese art(such as Murakami and Kaikai Kiki artists). Pay works with abstracts and uses experimental mediums, sometimes he puts gauze or donut wrappers into his paintings and creates special textures with them. Some of Pay's work is dark and lonesome feeling, while other pieces have a colorful kind of happiness in them. I don't think I've seen anybody else who paints like Pay-kun.

Pay lives in Nagoya but he sometimes shows his work in the U.S. and Canada. He had work in the garage sale section of my gallery show at Billy Shire Fine Arts and also has shown with Cafemode at Shojin in Little Tokyo. You can currently see one of his pieces on display at

QIO select 11614 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064