His given name was Takutaro Hirakushi; his original surname was Tanaka. In 1882 he was adopted into the Hirakushi family. After primary school he was sent into service in Osaka, and became a pupil of Shoko Nakatani, a doll maker and sculptor who lived nearby, receiving his grounding in wood carving. He moved to Tokyo in 1897, and the following year asked Koun Takamura to criticise a Kannon figure of his own. He was thereafter a pupil of Koun, though without actual instruction, and pursued his own study under the strong influence of Unkai Yonehara, a senior fellow pupil. With outstanding powers of realism he made many works carrying a deep spirituality of his own. He developed and advanced modern wood carving through the Taisho and Showa eras, and remained an active sculptor past the age of one hundred. Member of the Imperial Art Academy; professor at Tokyo University of the Arts; Person of Cultural Merit; recipient of the Order of Culture.