Career
Sakata became a professional Go player in 1935. His first title match was the Honorary"inbō in 1951 when he challenged Hashimoto Utaro. More than usual was at stake in the match because Hashimoto played for the Kansai Ki-in, which Hashimoto had founded the year before.
In 1961 he was once again the challenger for the Honorary"inbō.
His opponent, Takagawa Kaku, had held the title for nine years straight. Thus he became an honorary Honinbo, and was later called the 23rd Honinbo, with the name Honinbo Eiju.
During his Honinbo reign, in 1963, captured the Meijin, making Sakata the first player to simultaneously hold both titles (which at the time were the biggest titles in Japan). Sakata"s challenger for the 1965 Meijin was Rin Kaiho, who at the time was just 23 years old.
Rin then went on to take the Honorary"inbō from Sakata.
Sakata wrote many books in Japanese. Several have been translated into English, including Modern Joseki and Fuseki, The Middle Game of Go, Tesuji and Anti-Suji of Go and Killer of Go. Sakata died on October 22, 2010 at the age of 90.