Hiroga (広賀) of Hoki Province, who signed himself Mita Gorozaemon no Jo, left a dated the first month of Tenbun 2 (1533) with the inscription on its that it was made at sixty-one years. The published sources take that date as the oldest in his work and the stated age as good material for the study of the smith. He is transmitted as a pupil of the smith Tsunahiro, and his house is placed in a larger history: the Hiroga name arose in Hoki around the Bunmei era and continued into the period, divided between the Doso-o house, which forged at the Kajimachi of Kurayoshi, and the Mita house, which began with this Gorozaemon no Jo of Tenbun, lived at Tsuwara and later moved between Tsuwara and Kurayoshi. Among the several smiths of the name, those signing Mita Gorozaemon no Jo are judged especially skilled (見田五郎左衛門尉と銘するものが特に上手である), and Hoshu Hiroga is set beside Wakasa Fuyuhiro as a representative San'in smith of the late period.
The published sources describe his work as two manners. Hiroga, they write, has a -like manner and a -like manner, and another paper finds both the late and the late flavor in a single . The side is a large , opening at the waist and in places double-structured, with and , the strong, entering frequently until the temper becomes , with and a little . Its runs deep and -like, turning back far and continuing into . The side is calmer: a broad with , and , and , the straight and round with a deep return.
Beneath both lies a tightly forged with fine , on one an with and and a faint whitish , on another a mixed with . The published sources find in the school's and a rustic flavor, and add that some steel has a dark cast in its color, which is a point of interest of this school. The are with and an extended , one high in the with deep , another with and . The Tenbun is a thick, wide with a receding , the shape, its -based temper strong in with at the waist, carved with and .
His work is dated and long-signed. One paper gives his dated span as roughly Tenbun 5 to Genki 3, while the of Tenbun 2 stands before it; the carry Eiroku 1, Eiroku 4 and Eiroku 8, the last made for a patron at Hiromine in Harima and long dedicated at the shrine there, which the text gives as the reason its is somewhat worn. A of Eiroku 11, recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, takes his quiet side furthest: a straight with a small at the and a tight , which its text calls rare work for a school that favored and also made . The same inventory gives the first Hiroga as a Tsunahiro pupil who went to in the Tenbun years, and makes Mita Gorozaemon his pupil and the founder of the Mita line. One under this name, signed Hakushu ju Hiroga in the manner, is judged somewhat older than the Eiroku Gorozaemon and probably the Hiroga the directories put in Bunmei.
The published sources compare him with his contemporaries rather than with his teacher. The Eiroku 1 is called outstanding within his work, in no way inferior to the work of the school of the same age, and precious as a typical of the period. The Eiroku 8 is said to share the manner common to its time, close to Kiyomitsu, Wakasa Fuyuhiro and Bungo Munekage. What sets his own blades apart in that company is what the texts record of them: passing into on the side, and the dark, rustic under both manners.
Fujishiro grades him Jo , and the Toko Taikan values him at 400. Six designated works stand on record: five , none yet raised to , and the of the Honma inventory. A signed in the research data, not a designated work, is recorded as passing from Ukita Hideie to the Maeda. Of all his blades, the are what a collector may realistically meet, and they appear on the market only from time to time.