NAKAMURA was born in 1819, in a poor farming family lived in Nagahara Village, Yamabe District, Yamato Province (present-day Tenri City); he came to conclude that the increase of rice production and the income of farmers would be the basis of solving the problems on farmers, after seeing those riots of farmers throughout Japan at the end of Edo Period; throughout his life from 1863, he engaged in the production of new varieties of rice by comparing and selecting various kinds of rice produced in the regions of Japan.
1819年、大和国山辺郡永原村（現天理市）の貧農の家に生まれた彼は、幕末各地で起きた農民一揆を機に、米の増収こそ問題解決の根本であると考え、1863年以後イネの比較試作による品種改良を終生の仕事とした。