Sukehira has been counted since antiquity among the Sanbira, the three smiths whose names end in , with Takahira and Kanehira. The three survive very unevenly. The published sources write that Kanehira is met from time to time while Sukehira is extremely rare, and that no work of Takahira has been seen that can be accepted with confidence. He worked at the close of the period and the opening of the , and every blade the has examined is signed with the five-character long signature no Sukehira and never with two characters. This is the reverse of Kanehira, whose long signature appears on only two blades.
His finest surviving work is an designated in the 49th session and in the 18th. It is slender, with a marked difference between base and tip width and pronounced , a high growing shallower toward the point, and a small . The tang is in form, signed below the peg hole in large characters cut with a fine chisel. The published sources call the shape "dignified and elegant", and as one of the few signed by this smith "of very great value as documentary material", its and moreover healthy.
The of that is an mixed with , adhering well and fine entering frequently, with a standing. The is low: a mixed with small , and , with and . adheres thickly and fine and run through it. Along the edge, and appear at intervals, and the turns back in a small round with . The published sources write that these features "create the archaic, deep flavour of work".
The other signed keep the same manner in a quieter key, and the published sources judge them frankly. A slender of the 33rd session, recorded at designation in the United States, has an with fine and a narrow with , small and small , , and . It is called "a low-tempered of subdued flavour, its and well covered in ". A of the 29th session, shortened but still deep in , has a with at the peaks and a , but its signature is somewhat indistinct. A nearly of the 13th session has an old grace in its shape. Yet "its and have become tired overall", and its small are not wholly settled.
The 29th-session commentary sets his work beside the other surviving signed . These are a then listed as , a formerly now in the Tokyo National Museum, and a fire-damaged blade at Nikkō Tōshōgū. The has , a small , a fine with and a with small , abundant and and in places, and the commentary finds that "both show the flavour of and allow this smith's own character to be seen", the three long signatures closely alike. Two such are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, one presented to Emperor Meiji by the Tōdō family and the other, listed as in that inventory, by the Iwasaki family. Honma proposes them as genuine works that "should serve as the foothold for the study of Sukehira". Their workmanship is acceptable as , and their signatures stand comparison with other signatures. He notes slight differences in the characters and between the two, and judges that these "are probably due to a difference in date of making".
For the collector, Sukehira is one of the rarest names in early . Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō . His record holds one and three , four across the two tiers, every one signed, with the two in Honma's inventory beside them. One descends from the Fushimi-no-miya household with an of Hōreki 13 and a gold mounting with chrysanthemum crests. A signed Sukehira in private hands is among the rarest things a collector of could encounter, and when one appears it is valued as documentary material for one of the three Sanbira.