A painter and craftsman of the mid-Edo period. He was born the second son of a wealthy Kyoto draper and was the elder brother of Ogata Kenzan, growing up wanting for nothing. At thirty (1687) his father died and he inherited a large fortune, but he squandered it in dissipation and fell into such straits that he borrowed from his own brother. Ironically, it was this that made a painter of him.

He first studied the Kano manner under Yamamoto Soken. He then came under the influence of Tawaraya Sotatsu, and by adding to it a splendid decorative language of his own established the style known as the Korin school, or Rinpa. Under the patronage of a daimyo house he moved to Edo for some five years, but returned to Kyoto in his later life, where besides large-scale paintings he worked widely in the applied arts: decorating his brother Kenzan's ceramics, and designing fans, kimono and writing boxes.