Born December 18, 1839 (Tenpo 10) as the eldest son of Matsudaira Noritoshi, 7th lord of Okubo Domain in Mikawa Province. In 1852 he succeeded his retiring father as 8th lord. Since most of Okubo Domain's territory lay in Saku District, Shinano Province, in 1863 he obtained shogunate permission to relocate the domain seat to Taguchi in Saku. Deeply interested in Western military science and fortification, he planned a Western-style star-shaped (bastion) fortress for the new Taguchi residence, breaking ground in 1864 and completing it in 1867 — Ryugajo Castle (Ryugajo Goryokaku), one of only two surviving Western-style star forts in Japan alongside Hakodate's Goryokaku. In the shogunate he served as Junior Councilor, Senior Councilor, and Army Commissioner, promoting French-style military reforms, but during the Boshin War of 1868 he broke with the shogunate, submitted to the new imperial government, and sent domain troops to the Hokuetsu campaign. That year the domain was renamed Ryuoka. When the domains were abolished in 1871, he soon reverted to his ancestral surname, becoming Ogyu Yuzuru. After the Restoration he worked with Sano Tsunetami to found the Hakuaisha (precursor of the Japanese Red Cross Society, established 1877), earning him the nickname "father of the Japanese Red Cross." From 1873 he was also involved in researching and establishing Japan's honors and decorations system, serving for years as president of the Decorations Bureau and laying the foundations of Japan's modern honors system. In 1907 he was created a count in recognition of these achievements. He died on January 6, 1910, at the age of 72.

An enlightened domain lord with keen intellectual curiosity about Western military science and technology. He is thought to have designed the bastion fortress out of scholarly fascination rather than purely practical necessity, and during the Boshin War showed flexible judgment in reading the shifting tide and siding with the new government. After the Restoration he persevered in building institutions — the Hakuaisha and the Decorations Bureau — showing the steady hand of an institution-builder.

Ryugajo Castle (Ryugajo Goryokaku) survives today in Saku, Nagano as a National Historic Site — one of only two Western-style bastion fortresses in Japan alongside Hakodate's Goryokaku, a precious testament to the introduction of Western fortification techniques in the closing years of the shogunate. After the Restoration, the Hakuaisha he co-founded with Sano Tsunetami grew into the Japanese Red Cross Society, and together with his work establishing Japan's decorations system, he left a lasting mark on the foundations of modern Japanese social institutions.