The brilliance of Nobuo Sato’s works comes from his meticulous perfectionism. Only Nobuo Sato could perfectly express the textures of paper, cloth, glass, and wood using the copperplate printing technique called mezzotint. He often mentioned that he studied the works of Kiyoshi Hasegawa and Yozo Hamaguchi, but he was not just imitating them, he had his own unique style. The motifs in his works are realistic and concrete, yet they convey his own sense of fantasy and eroticism. In the realm of color mezzotint, many of his works were printed only with the three primary colors, and the level of completion is almost beyond human achievement. Learning that he carved directly onto the copperplate without an underlying sketch adds to the astonishment.

Among his monochrome works, there are many exquisite pieces such as “Ichima” and “5 tsu no Koppu (Five Cups).”  Since the mid-1970s, he had been presenting numerous color mezzotint works such as “Tajimi Shudoin (Tajimi Monastery)”. Nobuo Sato, who had been an aviator in WWII, released works like “Shokannon no Okao (Face of Holy Kannon),” “Yasukuni Jinja Mitama Matsuri (Yasukuni Shrine – Mitama Festival),” “Series Senyutachi no Fuji・Akafuji (Series: Mount Fuji and Red Fuji of Comrades),” and “Series Senyutachi no Fuji・Asagirifuji (Series: Mount Fuji and Morning Haze Fuji of Comrades)”. These prints convey his deep compassion for the souls of many fallen comrades in kamikaze attacks.

He had created a total of 322 works in his life. In this preservation museum, our collections consist of his 189 works comprising of 259 pieces.

We hope that many people will have the opportunity to appreciate the works of Nobuo Sato.