Tomoshige is the founder and representative smith of the Fujishima school of Fujishima in province, a name carried by several generations from the end of through and on into the early-modern era. The earliest dated work found among them is a of Oei 2 (1395), which the published sources call extremely valuable as the oldest date seen on any Tomoshige. The first generation comes down by tradition as a pupil of Kunitoshi of Yamashiro, alternatively of Sanekage of his own province. One paper doubts both readings: looking at the of Atsuta Shrine, thought to be his oldest work, it finds no stylistic tie to Kunitoshi and a chronology that cannot be reconciled with Sanekage, and judges from the make and the finish that the line descends rather from the Yamato tradition. Another compares his manner to the Yamato Shikkake school, with something of as well. The papers find no surviving work they can place before the period.
The recognition of Tomoshige lives in his . He forges an that mixes in and runs to , standing somewhat open, the surface gathering and , and the steel carries a distinct blackish cast. The published record names exactly this as the school's chief point, that the stands and tends dark. Over that he tempers a into which box-shaped, pointed and angular teeth enter together with , at times rising into a compound, multi-peaked . The calls the feel of it a make in which temperament and flavor are mixed. The run rather long and the whole is -laden. sweeps the , enter, and small are scattered here and there. The runs straight or into a and is often swept with .
The commonly stands and flows rather than tightening, and on the great spear it becomes a standing . The dark color belongs to the steel itself, and the published sources tie it directly to the northern provinces, writing of the Oei 2 that the blackish cast of the metal shows the point of northern-country work. On several blades a faint whitish rises in the . The answers with its own mix. Angular teeth are singled out as a point worth naming on one typical , and the sits at times in and at times in a deeper .
The short blades and the dated pieces mark the edges of this manner. On the the hand can quiet, and the published sources note that with a narrow and are also seen; one later , tempered in with round-headed and , is compared to Naoe and to Sekishu Naotsuna, yet its standing, dark shows the character of northern work. The Oei 16 (1409) leans further toward Yamato. It tempers a base with small teeth and a -like , and the reads in it a Yamato temperament while the dark color of the steel keeps the northern grain plainly shown. As one of the few early-dated Tomoshige it is valued as reference material for his range. A signed recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection adds a strongly in flowing with a whitish tendency, a with and heavy in the lower half, and a long-returning ; Honma judged it good work no later than the early period, the on its face a clumsy later carving, probably to hide a flaw. The name is signed on every one of his fifteen blades with published commentary, fourteen of them on an , the four-character Fujishima Tomoshige most common, sometimes a two-character Tomoshige, and a long signature on one piece.
What sets Tomoshige apart is held in his own grounded traits. His recalls a make in its and its long , but the box-shaped and pointed teeth, the standing dark and the constant give it his own character. One is read as showing an air. The teacher question is settled by elimination toward Yamato, the line bound neither to Kunitoshi in style nor to Sanekage in date. He stands at the head of the Fujishima manner of , and the name continues for generations on the same fixed character of dark standing and box-and-pointed , the work that survives in greatest number being of the period.
Fourteen of his blades stand in the tier, and Fujishiro rates the smith Chu-jo . His finest single work is a great spear, the o-mi- signed Fujishima Tomoshige and carved with a and the deity-name Myoken Daibosatsu. The judges that no spear of the school or the name is likely to surpass it, and that it is one of the representative famous spears of its age. Surviving by him are noted as rare. Recorded provenance is thin: an Oei-period descended in the Inaba house during the period, with a gold mounting, and the signed in Honma's inventory. No National Treasure or Important Cultural Property stands under his name. His blades are mostly held rather than traded, so that a Tomoshige is an uncommon encounter, though not beyond the reach of a patient collector of northern work.