Key Sato graduated from the Fine Arts School of Tokyo in 1929, he exhibited at the National Salon of Tokyo from 1926 where he excelled in winning the speciality prize in 1932. At this point, he was widely recognised as a figurative painter in his home country. It was during his first trip to Paris from 1930 to 1934, when he was a student at the Colarossi Academy, that he became fascinated by Picasso's cubist works.