Together with Katayama Tokuma, Tatsuno Kingo and Satachi Shichijiro, one of a group of renowned architectural students at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and a protege of British architect Josiah Conder.

Dispatched to London in 1901 by the co-founder of Mitsubishi, Iwasaki Yanosuke, Sone returned to design and supervise construction of the Senshokaku, an elegant two story mansion built on a steep hillside overlooking the Nagasaki shipyards.

In collaboration with his architectural office partner, Chujō Seiichirō, Sone produced a building in Edwardian neo-gothic style in red brick with white stone dressings.

This late Meiji period structure employed the latest technology of the time, including steel beams and reinforced concrete floor slabs as well as electrical circuits, gas and steam heat.

[2] Sone as superintendent, together with his former university instructor Josiah Conder as architect, was also responsible for many of the famed red-brick Mitsubishi buildings at Marunouchi, Tokyo.