Born to a samurai family in Edo, Nakamura was originally a Confucian scholar.

In 1866, as an academic supervisor, he accompanied a group of 14 Tokugawa bakufu students to study in Great Britain.

[1] The downfall of the Tokugawa regime brought an early end to the students studies in London and Nakamura returned to Tokyo in June 1868.

On his return to Japan, he translated Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles, and On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill into Japanese.

Nakamura was also noted for his promotion of educational opportunities for women and, with the help of Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician and Presbyterian missionary, establishing Rakuzen-kai, a charitable institution for the education of blind children.