Nakamura Shigekatsu served as a bushō during the Sengoku period.  He was the lord of Kaifu and Ōnishi castles in Awa Province.

Shigekatsu was born as the son of Nakamura Shigetomo, a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi from the Nakamura township of Owari Province.  Shigekatsu may have been the younger brother of Nakamura Kazuuji, a daimyō who served as one of the sanchūrō, or three elders, responsible for mediating differences between the Council of Five Elders and the Five Commissioners who formed the nucleus of the Toyotomi administration.

As a retainer of the Hachisuka clan of the Tokushima domain, Shigekatsu was granted a fief of 5,500 koku and positioned at Kaifu Castle in Awa in lieu of his father, Shigetomo.  In 1598, he became the lord of Ōnishi Castle, replacing the Ushida clan.

Shigekatsu participated in the deployment to the Korean Peninsula for the Bunroku-Keichō Campaign in the 1590’s.  In 1614, he led a battalion of 200 soldiers in the Winter Campaign of the Siege of Ōsaka.  On 12/16 of Keichō 19 (1614), Shigekatsu and his battalion incurred a surprise attack by Toyotomi forces including, among others, Ban Naoyuki.  Although known as a courageous warrior, on this occasion he was caught off guard.  Absent his armor, Shigekatsu wielded a spear and attempted to repel the attack, but was killed after being surrounded by six enemy soldiers.  This event is known as the Nighttime Attack at Honmachibashi.

Shigekatsu was succeeded by his eldest son, Nakamura Kakin.  His grave is at the Keirin Temple in the city of Miyoshi in Tokushima Prefecture.

Anecdotes

There is a theory that Shigekatsu was the father of Nakamura Kanzaburō, a first-generation kabuki actor, but it is not certain.