Shozo Sato

Shōzō Satō (佐藤 昌三, Satō Shōzō, May 18, 1933 – May 4, 2025) was an artist, author, calligrapher, playwright and a professor emeritus of the College of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He was the founder and former director of Japan House, and a former artist-in-residence at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Satō was an internationally renowned master of Japanese traditional arts, such as Ikebana, Japanese Calligraphy, Sumi-e, Japanese Aesthetics, Japanese Traditional Dance , and Japanese Tea Ceremony. He was also a visionary theater director, most known for adapting Western classics into a traditional Japanese Kabuki style. His last academic production was a Kabuki adaptation of Othello, titled Iago's Plot (2017), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

He was a visiting professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Satō was the author of The Art of Arranging Flowers: A Complete Guide to Japanese Ikebana, published in 1968 by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York, NY. The volume was printed and bound in Japan. With the assistance of Thomas A. Heenan, Satō was the author of The Art of Sumi-E: Appreciation, Techniques, and Application, published in 1984 by Kodansha International Limited, Tokyo, Japan. The volume was printed in Japan and distributed in the U.S. by Kodansha International/USA Limited through Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, New York, NY.

Satō retired from teaching in 1992 and moved to Northern California where he established a Center for Japanese Art.

Satō officiated at the wedding of actors Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally on September 20, 2003.

In 2016, Satō returned to Champaign, Illinois, where he taught calligraphy, Sumi-e, and Zen philosophy.

Satō died on May 4, 2025, at the age of 91.

Awards and honors In 2004, he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure .