Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I have come across one Yuu flute in Japan, and that was obtained by a Japanese teacher for a foreign student.  I've seen a few simpler plastic flutes (in white) for sale in a musical instruments shop in Kochi in recent years, and a shakuhachi maker friend of mine was painting pvc pipes in different colors -- blue, red, gold, silver, yellow, green -- a few years back; I sold a few to Japanese college students who initially couldn't afford to buy the real item.  Though I much prefer bamboo, the Yuu is the best of the plastic pipes I've seen, as it has a shaped bore and more of the weight and feel of a real shakuhachi than any of the others.

I agree with Jeff in the rarity of child shakuhachi players; I've not seen any elementary school age players of shakuhachi in my prefecture in fifteen or more years of attending traditional music concerts, though I've seen children even as young as three or four play koto on many occasions.    I like the one piece flutes but most of my flutes are two piece simply for convenience as I often get around by bicycle and find it convenient to stow my shakuhachi in a backpack, though I know it's not so good for that middle joint.