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The Early Years

Kazuo Nakamura was born on October 13, 1926. He was a second-generation Japanese Canadian (nisei). His father, Toichi Nakamura, had moved to Canada from Hiroshima in February 1911 at the age of fifteen, accompanying his own father who had made the trip at least a couple of times before. Although the elder Nakamura returned to Japan after a few years, Toichi settled in Vancouver in the neighbourhood known as Japantown or Little Tokyo, which was at the time a largely self-sufficient community where many immigrants from Japan lived.
Like so many of his compatriots, Kazuo’s father was seeking a better life in North America. Rapid urbanization in Japan in the late 1800s had deepened economic problems there. Many Canadians, however, saw the influx of Asian immigrants into Canada, and specifically into British Columbia, as an economic and social threat. By September 1907 underlying anti-immigration and racist attitudes against Asians by whites reached a boil, and riots broke out in Vancouver’s Chinatown and Japantown. Several government agreements subsequently restricted the number of Japanese immigrants permitted into Canada between 1908 and 1928.
Toichi Nakamura worked at a variety of jobs until he and his brother opened a restaurant in Japantown. In 1923 he travelled back to Hiroshima to marry Yoshiyo Uyemoto; he returned to Vancouver with his bride that same year. In 1925 the first of five children (three sons and two daughters) was born; Kazuo was the second child. The Depression forced the family to close the restaurant in 1935, and they moved out of Little Tokyo, heading south to 23rd and Main Street. There they opened a dry-cleaning and dressmaking shop, living in cramped quarters behind it, and integrated quickly into what was a relatively diverse community.
As a youth Kazuo Nakamura appears to have savoured life in the city. His earliest paintings depict landmarks like the Army & Navy discount department store on East Hastings Street, which appears in First Frost, 1941, as well as the Cambie Street Bridge and views of Main Street.
Nakamura received his first art training after he completed grade school in 1939. At Vancouver Technical Secondary School, he enrolled in the applied arts program, where he studied drafting, mechanical drawing, and design. Noted modern artist  (1897–1960) was teaching at the school, and it is believed that Macdonald taught Nakamura design and tutored him at least once a week in drawing and painting in 1940 and early 1941, and possibly into 1942.  The young artist also perused the art books of his uncle Shusaku Nakamura, who was an amateur painter. Of particular interest to Kazuo were the reproductions of French  paintings, as well as works illustrated in the Japanese art magazines his uncle subscribed to.   Nakamura obtained his art supplies by way of the Simpson’s and Eaton’s mail-order catalogues.