Photograph of Eleanor Burkett with Nobumitsu Katakura and his wife Teru

Eleanor Burkett visited Shiroishi in the spring of 1980 and was introduced to Nobumitsu Katakura, the 15th head of the Katakura clan, and his wife Teru, by papermaker Tadao Endō.  A book entitled Shiroishi washi, shifu and kamiko written by Nobumitsu Katakura (1909-1985) was posthumously published in 1988. Nobumitsu Katakura, along with Tadao Endō and Chūtarō Satō, revived these traditional practices in the 1930s and early 1940s and set up the Ōshū Shiroishi Local Industrial Art Research Institute. Nobumitsu Katakura is sometimes referred to as the 16th head of the Katakura clan on account of there having been an adopted head called Muranobu Katakura from the Date clan in the Edo Period who later changed his name back to Murashige Date. Nobumitsu referred to himself as the 15th head of the clan as do local people from Shiroishi. (text provided by Eleanor Burkett)