Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I've been trying to learn more about Kikusui Kofu. I was wondering if any forum members could provide me with more information than what seems to be available on the net.

Based on all the stories I've heard, he must have been born somewhere in the early 1900 or so. I'm not sure when exactly he died. However, his student, Yasuda Shinpu, was born in 1923. I suppose that it's safe to assume that he was older than his student which means that if he lived to fairly old age he might have died as late as 1970-1980. All of this is just guessing of course.

He seems to be most well known for his work on making inexpensive flutes for the poor as well as for founding his own school of shakuhachi music. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he was born into wealthy family but I could be wrong about that. Either way, he seems to have lived a simple life making shakuhachi and teaching. I don't know if he was a monk or otherwise involved in Zen but it seems like he lived in a temple at various points in his life.

This brings up many questions. Who did he learn from originally? Surely he didn't just start making and playing shakuhachi all of the sudden? I understood that his school is closely related to Myoan which would suggest that he must have learned to play from a Myoan teacher. Do they play original pieces composed for that school or do they share pieces with other schools? I checked the recording lists and noticed that all the pieces he recorded were from Myoan traditions. That would seem to suggest that he was at least taught to play some Myoan classics.

I noticed that whenever his name comes up, it's almost always in context of plastic and/or wooden flutes. Did he actually make any bamboo flutes at all? I've tried to ask around but all the surviving examples seem to be made out of wood or plastic. Given that I have yet to see a flute of his that isn't more beautiful than most anything I've seen, it would be interesting to know what his bamboo instruments looked like.

Any information, no matter how vague or anecdotal, is very much welcome. I'm hoping to get some leads so that I can track down further information about him. For such an interesting and apparently influential figure he is amazingly hard to find out about.