Godzilla Raids Again
He was born in Rumoi, Hokkaidō, and raised in Sapporo. While studying at the National Music Academy, Sato came under the influence of Fumio Hayasaka, Akira Kurosawa's regular composer for his earlier films. He became a pupil of Hayasaka's, studying film scoring with him at Toho Studios, and working on the orchestration of "Seven Samurai" (1954). When the older composer died suddenly in 1955, leaving the scores to Kenji Mizoguchi's "New Tales of the Taira Clan", and Kurosawa's "Record of a Living Being" incomplete, Toho assigned Sato to finish them. His first original score was for "Godzilla Raids Again" in 1955. He wrote the music to all of Kurosawa's movies for the next decade, including "Throne of Blood", "The Bad Sleep Well", "Yojimbo", "Sanjuro", and "Red Beard". In addition to Mizoguchi and Kurosawa, Sato worked with Hideo Gosha.