A private funeral was held only for relatives. According to the magazine's announcement, the day Sakata died is the day this year's British Open ended. The final chapter of Sakata and the late Eiji Kazama's Kaze no Daichi golf manga was about the British Open.
Sakata was born on October 11, 1947 in Kumamoto Prefecture. A professional golfer, he passed the Japan Professional Golf Association pro test in 1975. He also began writing while playing in tournaments.
Sakata and Kazama launched the long-running Kaze no Daichi golf manga in Big Comic Original in 1991. The manga won the Best Seinen Manga award in the 39th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 1993. Shogakukan published the manga's 84th volume in August 2022. The duo also created two other golf manga titled Hikari no Sora and the Daichi no Ko Series.
Sakata and illustrator Daichi Banjou launched the 29-volume DAN DOH!! manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 1995. The manga inspired a television anime adaptation in 2004.
Sakata and Bucchigiri manga creator Yuu Nakahara's Naoko manga ran in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine from 1994 to 2003.
Source: Big Comic Original magazine's X/Twitter account and website