Born in 1962, Obata studied at the Nihon University College of Art. In 2003, Obata was compelled to photograph winter scenes in Japan as he stood in front of Pieter Bruegel's painting "The Hunters in the Snow," displayed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. With this in mind, he rushed back to his homeland and visited Hokkaido, which is Japan’s northernmost isle. While capturing images of middle school ice skaters, his desire for photographing snow intensified. Since then he has traveled extensively across the island to embrace the challenge of taking shots of snowflakes.