Introduction
Shozo Sato, an internationally renowned Japanese master of Zen arts and visionary theatre director, most known for adapting Western classics to Japanese Kabuki theatre.
Shozo Sato is a professor emeritus of Art and Design, former artist-in-residence for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and founder and former director of Japan House, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Adaptations of Western classics in Kabuki form include MacBeth, Medea, Othello, Faust, Achilles and the operas, Madame Butterfly and The Mikado. His last academic production was Kabuki Lady Macbeth (2012) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
He is also a visiting professor at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Sato is 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.
Sato officiated at the wedding of actors Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.
Honors
In 2004, the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure was conferred.