Born in the Shimane Prefecture, Japan in 1912. The following year, his family moved to Tokyo. In 1936 he graduated from the Department of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Literature in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo. In 1943, at an exceptionally young age, he was appointed Associate Professor at the University, and in 1954 he became full Professor. From 1964 to 1966 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Letters. In March 1973, having reached mandatory retirement age, he left the University, and in the same year he was appointed Professor Emeritus by the University. Since 1984 he has been a member of the Japan Academy.

His field of research was exceedingly broad, encompassing Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, historical studies, Japanese thought, comparative thought, and more. His core interest and expertise was still in Indian philosophy. His areas of interest spanned Japan, India, China, Europe and America, extending to the Eurasian continent. His scholarship stretched from the ancient to the modern. His writings, both in Japanese and European languages, are extensive both in quantity and subject.

He wrote The History of Early Vedānta Philosophy, an epoch-making study in four volumes. This was a philological, historical, and philosophical reconstruction of nearly a thousand years of Vedāntic philosophy, which until then was almost entirely unknown. In 1957 what was his doctoral dissertation earned him the imperial award of the Japan Academy. In 1967, he undertook the English translation of the work, and finally in 1982 the first English language volume was published as, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy, translated by Trevor Leggett, Sengaku Mayeda, Taitetz Unno, and others. The second translated volume is currently in press, and despite being on his sick bed, he was eager to know about the translation. To the original four volumes, The Thought of Shankara was added in 1989, thus completing the five volumes of the series Indian Philosophical Thought.

His main research into Buddhism was directed toward early Buddhism. The many years that he devoted to research on this topic have borne fruit in eight volumes, namely volumes 11 to 18 of his collected works. Works on clarification of Mahayana Buddhism, four volumes (vols. 20 to 23) were added. He also made compilation and publication of his dictionaries of Buddhism, which were executed in simple and accessible language. In particular, his timeless Dictionary of Buddhist Terms, which was completed in 1974 in 3 volumes, which earned him the Mainichi Publications Cultural Award as well as the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism Cultural Award in 1975. As a sequel to this work, in 1988 the Illustrated Dictionary of Buddhist Terms was published.

For this achievements and contributions he received Japan’s Medal of Culture and the First Order of the Sacred Treasure, among other decorations. He has also received numerous awards from abroad, including an honorary doctorate from the president of India (Vidyāvācaspati).

In 1970 Dr. Nakamura established a non-profit organization, Eastern Institute, with himself at the head as chairman of the board of directors. The purpose was to cultivate young scholars and to engage in the dissemination of Eastern thought.