Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1986, Nakamura studied sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts, completing his undergraduate degree in 2009 and his Master’s in 2011, before apprenticing under his father, doll master Shinkyo Nakamura. He works within the tradition of Hakata dolls, while consistently pulling contemporary life into that classical frame.
A question drives his practice: if a doll maker from the Edo period could observe the present, what would they make? He approaches modern athletes as warlords, luxury brand logos as family crests—lightly crossing eras and cultures to find the prayers and aspirations people carry without quite naming them.
Here, the Hinadan becomes a stage where festivity and emergency share the same space. Human and animal, past and future, sacred and everyday—arranged on the same level, without resolution. Nakamura’s technical command is precise and deep, but the work it produces reaches past craft into something more exposed: a mirror for the choices, the hopes, and the blind spots that define how we live now.
- Section Special Project
- Venue Palazzo Bembo
- Based in Fukuoka, Japan
Are you a collector, curator, or professional interested in contacting this participant directly?