I am one of the Seven Spears of Dodogatake and was born in Sugaya-cho, present-day Nagahama City. My father was Katagiri Naosada, a vassal of the Asai clan. The Asai clan was attacked and destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in the first year of Tensho (1573), but he and his younger brother Sadataka served Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became lord of Nagahama Castle the following year. In the Battle of Dodogatake in 1583, he achieved remarkable military exploits together with Kiyomasa Kato and Masanori Fukushima, and was praised as one of the "Seven Spears of Dodogatake. In 1595, he was granted an additional 12,000 koku in Settsu Ibaraki and became the lord of Ibaraki Castle. In 1598, he was appointed as a tutor to Toyotomi Hideyori, together with Koide Hidemasa and others, and became the lord of Osaka Castle. After Hideyoshi's death, he assisted Toyotomi Hideyori, but was suspected by the Toyotomi side of being an informant of the Tokugawa, so he eventually joined the Tokugawa side in the Osaka battle.