His stage name at that time was Hinaro Miki (三木雛郎, "Miki Hinaro"). Tonpei Hidari and Eileen Fagen are the song's disciples at the time. He joined the jazz band "Hajime Hana and Crazy Cats" in 1960 as pianist. He will take over Êtarô Ishibashi's place, who was being treated for tuberculosis. After returning to Ishibashi, Hitoshi Ueki and the others opined that they should leave, but Hajime Hana, the leader, persuaded the other members to officially join the group, saying, "Because I became friends." In 1971, when Ishibashi left, Crazy Cats took the anomalous form of two pianists and began to perform controls that made use of the "continuous bullets" style (after that, Ishibashi often guest-starred on crazy The Bullet Series is standard). Ishibashi is said to be bold and Sakurai is said to be delicate.