A late bloomer,[1] Kato won 46 titles, including the Oza eight times in a row.
Kato joined Kitani Minoru's go dojo in 1959, quickly becoming friends with Ishida Yoshio.
[4] Kato went on to win 46 total titles, fourth most in Japan behind Cho Chikun, Sakata Eio and Kobayashi Koichi.
[2] At one point, Kato held four of the top 7 titles: Meijin, Oza, Judan and Gosei.
Under his lead, he eliminated the Oteai, instead introducing new rules to help deal with rank inflation that had occurred over the years.