Katata was a river gunboat, named for the shrine at Katata, and the second of the four Seta-class boats. Her sisters were Seta, Hira, and Hozu. The officer list spells her Kataka. Another account spells her Katada. Harima at Aioi laid her down on 29 April 1922 and launched her on 16 July 1922. She was taken apart, shipped to the Tunghwa yard at Shanghai, and put back together. Reassembly started on 25 January 1923. She was completed on 20 October 1923. She spent her life on the Yangtze. In the summer of 1937 she was the boat based at Shanghai.
The names before 1940 are full of gaps, and those tours are left out. Sashichiro Tadano had her from 15 April 1940 to 10 September 1940. Tatsuji Matsuzaki had her from that day until 1 July 1943. He is the same officer who took Fujinami on 31 July. The movement record leaves the captain unknown from April 1940, so those two names come from the officer list, and Matsuzaki’s move to the destroyer is in her record. After him the officer list has no captain through the surrender. On 22 June 1942 she was with Seta on the operation at Tungting Lake.
On 12 December 1944 American aircraft bombed her near Kiukiang, at 29°35′N, 116°10′E. One account says 18 December. She was damaged, driven aground, and towed to Shanghai. The movement record allows that she may have been sunk and then raised. On 2 April 1945 fighters damaged her again at Shanghai. She was still there, and she could not move, when the war ended. One account says she was ceded to China and never commissioned. She was struck on 3 May 1947. The officer list says she was scrapped in 1947 and leaves the strike date blank. Another account says she was broken up in 1946, and another says 1945. No gun count is given here. The lists do not agree on a fit that can be checked against this hull.