Japanese musicians are increasingly finding audiences around the world. Yet the path taken by Ichika Nito stands apart.
In 2016, while still a university student, he began posting short guitar performance videos on Instagram. Built around a distinctive tapping technique, those clips quickly began circulating overseas, turning social media into an unlikely launchpad for a global career. When he opened his YouTube channel in 2018, the momentum only grew. Today it has around 2.8 million subscribers, the overwhelming majority outside Japan. In 2021, he became the first Japanese artist to release a signature model with the renowned guitar brand Ibanez. And since the pandemic eased in 2023, he has taken his music around the world, captivating audiences with nothing more than a single guitar.
Now, with the release of his debut album The Moon’s Elbow this January, Ichika Nito sits down for a conversation with pianist Hayato Sumino. Guitar and piano may belong to different musical traditions, but the two share striking parallels. They are from the same generation, both committed to performing as soloists, both first discovered by global audiences through YouTube, and both now regularly performing abroad.
What does it mean to stand alone on stage, carrying both the freedom and the weight of being a soloist? And how do you find your own sound without being confined by the conventions of instrument or genre? In this conversation, the two reflect on the joys and struggles of their paths, and the futures they are beginning to imagine.
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A Shared Foundation in the Piano
I heard the two of you first met during the pandemic through a mutual acquaintance, the photographer Ogata. What were your impressions of each other at the time?
Ichika: Even before we met, I had seen Cateen’s videos on YouTube — that’s Hayato’s name on the platform — and thought, “There’s a really interesting pianist out there.” He seemed around my age too, so I kind of hoped we might become friends someday. I already had a good impression of him, so when we actually got to meet, I was really happy.
Sumino: Same here. I had been watching Ichika’s videos too, and I remember thinking I’d like to meet him someday. I had this feeling that we’d probably run into each other somewhere eventually, so I was kind of looking forward to that.
Ichika: I also remember thinking he was really interesting once we started talking. It felt like we shared a similar sensibility, or a similar way of thinking about music. I’ve met a lot of musicians over time, and often our perspectives are quite different. But with Hayato, I felt like we could get into deeper conversations right away. That’s something I remember feeling even back then.
Ichika, the first instrument you played wasn’t guitar but piano, and you’ve mentioned artists like Bill Evans and Ryuichi Sakamoto as musicians you listened to growing up.
Ichika: I said I already had a good impression of him before we met, but honestly I’ve always had a huge admiration for pianists. If anything, I’ve always felt this kind of “main character energy” from pianists even more than from guitarists. So when I watched Hayato’s videos, my reaction was basically, “Whoa, that’s so cool!”
Born in Osaka in 1994, Ichika Nito began posting guitar performance videos while still in university, launching his career as his distinctive two-handed playing technique quickly gained attention overseas. He now has more than five million followers across social media, with roughly 70% of his audience based outside Japan. In 2021, he released the ICHI10, the first signature model by a Japanese artist with the guitar brand Ibanez. In 2022, he contributed to an album by Machine Gun Kelly, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. In Japan, he is also active as a member of ichikoro and Dios. In January 2026, he released his long-awaited first solo full-length album, The Moon’s Elbow.
Sumino: I usually find myself admiring pianists, but when it came to Ichika’s videos… it’s kind of strange, but I don’t think I was watching them with the mindset of “this is a guitarist.” I was simply drawn to how good the sound felt.
And the style of the videos, too. I felt there was something similar about them, almost like the idea that “the performance is everything.” No captions, no flashy thumbnails — just presenting the music as it is. I really liked that about them as well.
Born in Chiba in 1995, Hayato Sumino began his professional music career in earnest after winning the Grand Prix in the Special Grade of the PTNA Piano Competition in 2018 while still a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. In 2021, he was selected as a semifinalist at the International Chopin Piano Competition. He is also active on YouTube under the name Cateen, where his channel has surpassed 1.5 million subscribers. In 2024, he released his global debut album Human Universe on Sony Classical and successfully held a solo concert at Nippon Budokan. His latest album, CHOPIN ORBIT, was released in January 2026. Now based in New York, he continues to perform widely in Japan and abroad.
Ichika, did you listen to a lot of classical music as well?
Ichika: Not really. The only exposure I had was playing famous pieces when practicing piano as a kid. When did you start playing piano?
Sumino: Pretty much from the moment I was born. But when I was little, I didn’t know about Ryuichi Sakamoto or Bill Evans at all. When you’re that young, before starting school, the only music you really know is children’s songs or classical.
Ichika: My grandmother was a piano teacher, so she taught me a lot. My dad also loved music — his main thing was hard rock and heavy metal — but he was really into film scores too, and that’s how I remember discovering Ryuichi Sakamoto. Oh, and I just remembered something — I’ve always loved this guitarist named Russell Malone.
The well-known jazz guitarist.
Ichika: Yeah. This was before I had even started playing guitar, but I was actually copying Russell Malone’s playing on the piano. I was trying to recreate those cascading jazz guitar arpeggios on the piano. I remember doing that when I was around five or six. So in that sense, the piano really is a big part of my roots.
