Based on an awareness that there is no boundary between illustrations (especially digital works) and contemporary artworks in the first place, Cotoh has succeeded in producing contemporary artworks with unique interpretation of mass-consumed illustrations and their printing techniques.

Cotoh’s works include silkscreen, giclee prints, ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and hand paintings, all of which are unique (except for ukiyo-e woodblock prints). By deliberately limiting artwork creation to using techniques based on mass consumption, Cotoh seeks to bring a breath of fresh air to the Japanese context in which these artworks have been generally evaluated as commercial products.

With no particularity in style in terms of design or method of output, Cotoh’s work is constantly being updated. Now, he has started to produce “oil paintings” with the same or better quality than digital drawings. His works are nostalgic and yet have a sense of the future within them, as well as works with comical poses.

A contemporary artist who continues to challenge an approach that is distinctly different from the artists who depict urban female characters of today.