This volume is derived from a celebration of the career of Professor Takao Kumazawa at Nagoya University and includes papers from investigators throughout the world whose contributions are dedicated to his honour. Topics range from current studies and reviews of the impact of modern molecular biology on the contemporary knowledge of polymodal receptors, to reflections related to the career and lifetime achievements of a pioneer neurophysiologist who has focused on relatively simple modal systems, especially those concerned with deep or visceral sensing mechanisms and their role in the broad behavioral spectrum constituting pain.