All illustrators/Oswaldo KATO
Oswaldo KATO was born in São Paulo and works in Japan under the name 加藤オズワルド. He is one of the newest arrivals in our index and also its most valuable by a wide margin — the four connected Art Rare Pikachu cards he drew for the Simplified Chinese 151 set are the reason.
Quick answer
CardSpicy records 201 Pokémon card printings credited to Oswaldo KATO — 94 of them in the English run, 107 Japanese printings outside it, 167 with an official card image. The English run spans 2019–2026. 27 of those printings have a Simplified Chinese card. The highest-priced of the artist’s Simplified Chinese cards is $3,187 in PSA 10.
Who they are
KATO’s first card was Venipede in the Chilling Reign expansion, released in 2020 — six years after the Simplified Chinese print run began, and the artist with the shortest TCG résumé in the top of our ranking. Outside of the TCG he has worked on other official Pokémon projects, including the box art, cards and instruction manual for the board game Pokémon Whoosh!
Every card credited to Oswaldo KATO
Every printing we can attribute to this artist, shown card by card: English first, then the Japanese printings that never had an English release, then the sets that only ever ran in Japan. Each printing is listed under its own language rather than merged, because a Japanese original and its English release are different cards to a collector. Cards whose official image is not in the open card databases are still listed, and say so.
- Sword & Shield Era 38 (2019–2023)
- Scarlet & Violet Era 50 (2023–2025)
- Mega Evolution Era 6 (2025–2026)
English printings 94
Every English printing credited to KATO, grouped by era and then by set.
Sword & Shield Era
38 cards
2019–2023 · 12 sets
Scarlet & Violet Era
50 cards
2023–2025 · 15 sets
Mega Evolution Era
6 cards
2025–2026 · 5 sets
Japanese printings outside the English run 107
Japanese printings in sets with no English equivalent release.
Sword & Shield Era
42 cards
2021–2022 · 12 sets
Scarlet & Violet Era
56 cards
2022–2025 · 23 sets
Their Simplified Chinese cards
Simplified Chinese cards credited to KATO, with our price data. Four of these are the connected Art Rare Pikachu cards from the 151 set.
| Card | Printing | No. | PSA 10 | Ungraded | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pikachu | 151C | #172 | $3,187 | $2,000 | In stock · In stock · In stock · In stock |
| Pikachu | 151C | #171 | $1,545 | $774.73 | In stock · In stock · In stock · In stock |
| Pikachu | 151C | #173 | $1,200 | $696.8 | In stock · In stock · In stock · In stock |
| Pikachu | 151C | #170 | $1,038 | $530 | In stock · In stock · In stock · In stock |
| Charizard V | CS5aC | #152 | $495 | $55.75 | Find this Card for Me |
| Ice Rider Calyrex | CS3bC | #162 | $51.00 | $21.50 | Find this Card for Me |
| Ninetales EX | 151C | #178 | $50.01 | $4.25 | Find this Card for Me |
| Swablu | CSV5C | #136 | $50.00 | $3.74 | Find this Card for Me |
| Oddish | 151C | #157 | $19.00 | $3.69 | Find this Card for Me |
| Team Rocket’s Porygon | CSV10C | #172 | — | $18.88 | Find this Card for Me |
| Pidgey | 151C | #16 | — | $2.50 | Find this Card for Me |
| Pidgeot | 151C | #18 | — | $1.99 | Find this Card for Me |
| Pidgeotto | 151C | #17 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Chi-Yu | CSV5C | #22 | — | $1.00 | Find this Card for Me |
| Beach Court | CSV4C | #165 | — | $0.99 | Find this Card for Me |
| Arven’s Skwovet | CSV10C | #182 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Cycling Road | CSV6C | #127 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Dyna Tree Hill | CS3bC | #120 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Melmetal | CSV7C | #150 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Old Cemetery | CS3aC | #124 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Rabsca | CSV4C | #60 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Skaters’ Park | CS4bC | #131 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Swablu | CSV4C | #104 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Tandemaus Master Ball | CSV4C | #112 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
| Town Store | CSV5C | #128 | — | — | Find this Card for Me |
Prices are PriceCharting sale values in US dollars, PSA 10 where a graded sale exists and ungraded where it does not. They move.
Their career in the TCG
His credits start in the Sword & Shield block and continue into Scarlet & Violet and Mega Evolution: 94 English printings across 32 sets. What lifts him to the top of the index is not volume but a single commission — the Simplified Chinese 151 set gave him four Art Rare Pikachu cards that form one continuous scene, and the set’s collectors price them accordingly.
- 2020First card: Venipede, Chilling Reign.
- 2024Draws the four connected Art Rare Pikachu cards for the Simplified Chinese 151 set.
- 2026Reaches 94 English printings; ranked 1st in our illustrator index by top Chinese card.
Style and technique
KATO’s scenes are soft and painterly, closer to illustration for a storybook than to the high-contrast rendering the TCG uses for its chase cards. Backgrounds are painted rather than implied, light is diffuse, and the framing is often intimate — a Pokémon at rest or mid-motion inside a scene rather than centred against a neutral ground.
The connected-scene commissions are the clearest expression of it: because the four Pikachu cards share one landscape, the style has to hold up when the cards are laid side by side, which rewards painted depth over individual hero poses.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards by this illustrator does CardSpicy list?
CardSpicy lists 201 printings credited to Oswaldo KATO on this page. Official card images are available for 167 of them.
Does this illustrator have Simplified Chinese cards?
Yes. CardSpicy prices 27 cards by Oswaldo KATO in Simplified Chinese, each as a PSA 10 Gem Mint value.
Which card by this illustrator is the most valuable?
The highest-priced Simplified Chinese card CardSpicy lists for this illustrator is $3,187. That is a recorded PSA 10 Gem Mint value, not an asking price.
When did this illustrator first appear in English?
The English printings CardSpicy records for this illustrator run from 2019 to 2026.
Are any printings released only in Japan?
Yes. CardSpicy records 107 printings released only in Japanese, outside the English run.
Sources
- Bulbapedia, “Oswaldo KATO”
- Bulbapedia card index, Category: Illus. by Oswaldo KATO (107 cards)
- TCGdex card database, illustrator credits by printing (94 English printings)
- PriceCharting Simplified Chinese sales via our own card index
Card attribution comes from the illustrator field recorded in the card databases; where a single card was reprinted across many sets, each printing is counted separately.
See also the full card index — every card CardSpicy tracks, ranked by PSA 10 value.