Hirosuke (広助) worked at Shimada in Suruga in the late period, and his surest date is a he forged away from home: signed Shimada Hirosuke made this in Koshu, dated the second month of Eiroku 2 (1559), it carries the owner inscription of Hara Nyudo, the Toratane counted among the twenty-four generals of the Takeda. The published sources set the Shimada school out from its own genealogy. Yoshisuke, who took the Buddhist name Keizen, worked around Kosho, with his younger brother Sukemune; both names ran through several generations, and Hirosuke appears among the pupils of the third Yoshisuke. The sword directories cited in his papers make him the son of the second Yoshisuke, active around Eisho, with a second generation around Tensho and later bearers of the name reaching the period.
His generations are a question the published record leaves open. Two texts state that Hirosuke was a single generation only, while others count several smiths of the name, and one paper holds that the signature style of its is the oldest of them, around Tenbun. Another judges by the form of the that its blade belongs between Eiroku and the first years of Tensho. Yoshisuke, Sukemune and Hirosuke are named together as the representative smiths of the school, and the three of them are recorded working in Koshu from Eiroku into the beginning of Tensho.
Within that trio the sources give Hirosuke the boldest hand. They write that among the three "Hirosuke shows the most robust manner and has spirit", and that he generally excelled in wide, imposing work. His are wide in , often thick in , with a marked and a that extends or opens into an . The is with , at times mixed with or and flowing in places, and in several works the steel has a slightly whitish cast; one shows a tight instead.
The is built on a or tone mixed with and a feeling, with angular and pointed elements, entering and frequent, in deep with . enter on some blades and on one, on others, and the ranges from tight to somewhat sunken. The Koshu of Eiroku 2 is tempered in pointed with , strong in , its turning and returning deeply. Elsewhere the runs to a with a pointed tendency, at times with or a long return. are the usual carving; a with , and is noted for carvings that are rare in his work. The papers explain the school's manner as strongly influenced by , and , or by late and late Seki work.
Two works stand apart. One is called the finest of his oeuvre, and the sources ask whether he privately modeled himself on the manner of Chogi, since apart from its strong the build seems exactly that, and the activity within the is called superb. A kata- , wide and elongated, is a joint work of Motosuke and Hirosuke, described as rare among Shimada blades and placed between the end of Tenbun and Koji. Of other blades the texts write that the work is splendid and the quality of and outstanding. His is a large two-character 広助 below the , in several works cut with a thick chisel.
Fujishiro grades him Jo . Nine designated works stand on record: seven , the Koshu as a , and one recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, whose text repeats that Hirosuke's work is most often of the boldest kind. The Hara Toratane inscription is the one provenance his record preserves. The seven blades are the part of his work a collector may realistically meet, and even these appear on the market only from time to time.