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He was born in Tokyo in 1927, and was a professor at Waseda University (English Lit. and Comparative Lit.). In 1970 he stayed at UC Berkeley as a visiting scholar to find out about English haiku. Since then he has been studying haiku in different languages from a comparative point of view and introducing them to Japan. He has served as director of the Haiku Museum, visiting professor of many American universities, and adviser to the JAL Haiku Contest, contributing to the development of international haiku.
Presently he is Professor Emeritus at Waseda University, advisor to the Association of Haiku Poets, and Adviser to the Haiku International Association in Japan. He is the author of many books and essays in the field of comparative literature and haiku, including Is It Possible to Transplant Rape Flower?; From Haiku to Haiku; Essays on Haiku; and Cats Also(a collection of his haiku).
He received the Japanese Minister of Education Prize for his book Haiku Crossed the Ocean in 1992, a Special Award from the Haiku Society of America in 1998, and the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Prize (EIJS Special Prize) in 2000.

hitotsuzutsu harukaze watasu fûsen-uri
one by one
he hands over spring winds --
the balloon man

note: This haiku of Sato Kazuo's is carved on a kuhi (poem stone) and is in a garden in Hayward, California -- it is the second kuhi in America; the first kuhi, by haiku poet Mizuhara Shuoshi, is in a Japanese garden in Seattle, Washington.

haru no yami e neko wa onore no kage wo keru
into the spring darkness
a cat kicks at
its own shadow

ajisai ya ashita yûbe no kai no tera
hydrangeas
morning and evening
at a temple in Kai

note: This haiku of Sato Kazuo's is carved on another kuhi and is located in the grounds of Myohoji temple, in Kofu city of Yamanashi prefecture, Japan. "Kai" is also the old name for "Yamanashi" in Japanese.

bara-gakine goshi ni neko-zuki neko-girai
across a rose hedge
a cat lover
and a cat hater

gekkabijin yoru no mukô ni umi no oto
a moon-beauty flower
in the depth of the night
the sound of the sea

note : In Japanese "gekkabijin" is an elegant large white flower growing on a thin, cactus-like vine -- it only blooms for one night at midnight, and then withers in the morning; literally in Japanese, "gekka" means "under the moon" and "bijin" means "beautiful woman"; knowing this heightens the feeling of elegance and poignancy, in the contrast of the beautiful ephemeral whiteness of the flower against the dark and the distant sound of the sea. This haiku can be found in the Nihon Daisaijiki (The Large Japanese Season Word Dictionary).

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