Born in 1663 as the fourth son of Kariganeya, a wealthy Kyoto textile merchant family. His elder brother, five years his senior, was Rinpa master Ogata Korin. From his twenties he devoted himself to calligraphy and Zen, then studied ceramics under Nonomura Ninsei, opening a kiln at Narutaki in Kyoto in 1699 and taking the name "Kenzan." The name derives from "ken" (west), contrasting with "to" (east) from the eastern mountain of the legendary Chinese hermit Tao Yuanming. Many collaborative works remain in which Korin painted and Kenzan fired. In contrast to Ninsei's splendid overglaze enamels, Kenzan pursued works of a literati and free-spirited character reflecting the spirit of Zen and waka poetry. He moved to Edo in 1731 and continued creating pottery in Iriya (present-day Taito Ward). He died in 1743 at age 81. Kenzan's free-spirited artistic sensibility is highly regarded as an embodiment of the ideal of literati beauty in tea ceramics.

A detached literati temperament unconcerned with worldly fame. Unlike his flamboyant brother Kōrin, he was introspective, quietly pursuing his own art.

Kenzan ware continues as an important Kyoto ceramic lineage, embodying the ideal of literati tea ceramics. The brothers' collaborative works are internationally acclaimed as the pinnacle of Rinpa ceramics.