Born in Kyoto in 1932, Sotetsu Nakamura XII, whose given name was Hiroko, was the eldest daughter of Sotetsu Nakamura XI. After graduating from the lacquerware course of the Department of Crafts at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts in 1955, she trained in the family's inherited designs and techniques and exhibited her work in the Nitten and other exhibitions. She succeeded to the name Sotetsu Nakamura XII in 1986 and became the first woman formally recognized as head of one of the Senke Jisshoku, the ten craft families serving the three Sen tea schools. She preserved Rikyū-style forms and other traditional tea utensils associated with the Sen schools, producing lacquerware such as tea caddies, incense containers, and trays. She received the Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Merit Award in 1993 and was honored by Kyoto City for cultural merit in 2000. She died in 2005.