Born to a "samurai" family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture), Kataoka entered the 3rd class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1871, and later accompanied Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu as an exchange student to Germany.
Born to a "samurai" family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture), Kataoka entered the 3rd class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1871, and served as a midshipman on the "Tsukuba". Kataoka, accompanied Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu as an exchange student to Germany.