Masato Otaka (1923–2010) was a Japanese architect and urban planner and a founding member of the Metabolist group. He graduated in architecture from the University of Tokyo in 1947 and joined Kunio Maekawa's office in 1949, where as a junior associate he completed the Harumi Apartment Building in Tokyo Bay. Around the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokyo he formed the Metabolist group with Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki and others, and with Maki wrote its essay "Towards the Group Form". He opened his own office in 1962 and worked largely as a planner, including the master plan for Tama New Town (1966).
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Sakaide Artificial Ground (1968) lays a new ground like a slab over the old, crowded district of salt-marsh workers in Sakaide: instead of clearing the city, Otaka built a layer on top of it, a form of urban growth by superimposition tied to his idea of "collective forms". The Gunma Prefectural Museum of History in Takasaki (1979), designed by his office, won the BCS Prize. The Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (1984), also by his office, stands at the foot of Mount Shinobu.
