Sanosuke Sakuma Pokemon Cards: Iono SR & Illustrator Guide

Who Is Sanosuke Sakuma?

Sanosuke Sakuma (Japanese: 佐久間さのすけ Sakuma Sanosuke; born October 31, 1990) is a freelance illustrator based in Kanagawa, per Bulbapedia’s artist entry. Sakuma began providing artwork for the Pokemon Trading Card Game in 2013, with the first illustrations featured on cards released in the Shiny Collection — a debut that lines up cleanly with two of the PSA 10 cards currently listed later in this guide, both of which come from that exact set.

On the tools side, Bulbapedia states Sakuma draws digitally, using Adobe Photoshop as the primary application. Stylistically, Bulbapedia describes work that “specializes in producing artwork with cute characters and invoking a warm atmosphere, utilizing a specific color palette and soft drawing style,” while also noting that Sakuma “experiments with different styles, including anime, impasto, and watercolor” depending on the card. That range shows up across the catalog: some prints lean toward soft, rounded character work, while chase-tier Trainer cards push into more painterly, textured territory.

By Bulbapedia’s own count, Sakuma has illustrated 161 TCG cards — a tally that uses a different counting methodology than the Limitless TCG database figures cited throughout this guide (169 English-language cards, 273 Japanese-language prints), so none of these three numbers should be added together or treated as interchangeable. What all three agree on is scale: this is a career built on a genuinely large body of work, not a handful of headline prints.

For readers comparing artists across our illustrator series, Sakuma’s catalog sits alongside KEIICHIRO ITO, Mitsuhiro Arita, and Teeziro — each covered in a dedicated guide.

The 2013 debut date is worth pausing on: that puts Sakuma’s start in the TCG well before the Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield design work that came later in the career. In practice, that means the catalog spans two distinct eras — Shiny Collection (2013) illustrations on one end, and current Scarlet & Violet Trainer and Supporter chase cards on the other, with well over a decade of TCG Pocket, VMAX Climax, and VSTAR Universe-era work filling the gap between them.

The Wider Catalog: GX Tag Teams, Trainers & Early Work

Iono is a recent highlight, but the Limitless database shows a catalog that stretches back through the Sun & Moon GX era and into the earliest Sword & Shield Character Rare boom. A handful of representative cards give a sense of the range.

On the GX Tag Team side, Latias & Latios-GX (Tag Bolt, SM9 #105) is a Secret Rare that predates the Iono chase by several years and shows an earlier, more classically-posed illustration style. Gardevoir from VMAX Climax (S8b #196) carries a Character Holo Rare slot, one of the “character” subsets that ran through the late Sword & Shield era. On the Supporter side, Whitney from Super-Burst Impact (SM8 #101/095) is another Secret Rare Trainer card, illustrated in the same era as the Latias & Latios-GX print.

Professor’s Research, the Secret Rare Supporter from VSTAR Universe (S12a #248), is one of the catalog’s higher-profile chase Trainer cards. Further back, Jirachi from Legendary Heartbeat (S3a #50) carries an Amazing Rare designation.

Taken together, the catalog reads less like a small set of headline grails and more like a long, steady run of Trainer-focused and character-focused illustration work, with Iono as the current-era standout rather than an outlier. Collectors focused specifically on Trainer-card illustration — as opposed to Pokemon artwork — will find Sakuma’s name recurring across several set eras rather than tied to a single breakout print, which is part of why the 169/273-card Limitless counts run as high as they do relative to some other illustrators in this series.

Beyond the Cards

Sakuma’s work extends past the TCG in a few documented directions, per Bulbapedia’s artist entry:

• Animation: Sakuma contributed art for animation in Pokemon Horizons: The Series, credited on episode HZ055.
• Pokemon UNITE: Event art credited to Sakuma includes the “Green and Blastoise Legacy Trainer Showdown Event art.”
• Merchandise: Bulbapedia’s merchandise list credits Sakuma with the Pokemon Center “Ride with Lapras” line, the “Ride with Latias and Latios” line, and TCG sleeve/deck box art featuring Lucas, Dawn, Rei, and Akari.
• Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket: Sakuma has also illustrated 35 cards appearing in TCG Pocket, per Bulbapedia — a separate mobile-game card pool from the physical TCG counts cited elsewhere in this guide.

None of this is a complete list of every project Sakuma has worked on — it’s what Bulbapedia’s sourced entry documents. Award history, agency arrangements, and any work outside these credited projects aren’t stated in that source, so this guide doesn’t speculate beyond it.

Where to Buy Sanosuke Sakuma Cards from Japan

The seven cards above are the Sanosuke Sakuma-illustrated prints currently listed in our PSA 10 inventory (as of 2026-08-12).

For the wider PSA 10 catalog, browse our PSA 10 collection or the full PSA 10 card list to filter by set, illustrator, and price. If you’re comparing illustrator profiles across our series, KEIICHIRO ITO and Mitsuhiro Arita each have their own dedicated guides. For anything not currently listed, the Quick Order page is the fastest way to build a request.