Every designated work that survives under the Hikozaemon-no-jo Sukesada signature is a , and dated, the earliest the Tenbun 16 (1547) blade that carries beside its long signature a nine-character kuji-in seal, the auspicious characters Daikichi, and a , and the latest the Tensho 4 (1576) commission made for Wada Izumo no Kami of Harima. The name Sukesada is the great late- name of , carried by a body of smiths of whom the most highly regarded bore distinguishing common-name titles: Yosozaemon no Jo, Genbei no Jo, Hikobei no Jo, and the Hikozaemon no Jo whose blades are gathered here. The published sources are candid that Hikozaemon no Jo stands somewhat lower in name than the first two, yet they judge these particular blades especially well made, one of them "a representative masterwork among swords". His hand is the mature , and the signature itself runs in three -signature generations, read off the as a first in Eisho, a second in Tenbun-Eiroku, and a third in Genki-Tensho.
The distinguishing matter of his work is a single declared division of manner. The published sources state it almost verbatim across the corpus: the work of this period divides broadly into a that develops into a compound, layered form, and a into which and enter. The first is the flamboyant pole. Over the he tempers a whose valleys open at the base, deeply hardened, the building into the doubled structure, abundant and within it, attaching, with and running through; on the most agitated of these the is bright, while on others it grows subdued. The second is the quiet pole, a or broad carrying and well, with , the tending toward a tightened look, and on one Tensho and a touch of gather around the . A blade falls cleanly into one mode or the other, and the judges name which on each.
The is the constant beneath both manners. It is a compact , on the broader an , well forged and tight, with attaching; on one blade it tightens so far as to appear -like, almost featureless, and on another it loosens into a standing () mixed with and carries along the back. The forging is where the judges most often single him out: of the Tenbun 16 they write that the is "outstanding", forged in with and abundant , presenting overall "a strongly steely character". The answers the mode: turning , sometimes deeply tempered into a -like tip on the flamboyant blades, and a with a long return, pointed, or faintly on the ones. The is the late- throughout, a broad with , , and an extended tending to an , the at times shaved high.
The generations are read directly off the , since the blades are and each carries a long signature on the with a date on the . The published sources date a piece, then place it against the three Hikozaemon no Jo of the : the Tenbun 16 and Tenbun 17 as the second generation, the Tensho 1 and Tensho 4 as the third. The second generation's working range they call broad, taking in , , and alike, and in each they perceive a high level of technique. The lengthening of the blade and of the across these dates is read as a sign of the age: the had fallen entirely out of use, and in its place the long came to be worn and used two-handed with the development of swordsmanship, so the dimensions grow accordingly. The two modes and the three generations are orthogonal, the one a matter of manner and the other of date, and a full reading of any blade gives both.
Within his school he belongs to the dense body of the late , the last great phase of the long line. The published sources rank Hikozaemon no Jo among the representative masters of the Sukesada group together with Yosozaemon no Jo, Genbei no Jo, and Hikobei no Jo, the smiths whose works, in their words, are foremost for the number of fine pieces and for especially high technical skill. His own distinction is read not by borrowing a comparison but by his own grounded traits, the two declared modes held on a tight with and the steely forging the judges praise, the descent kept within the one name rather than carried out to other lines. The Tenbun 16 , of which they say swords bearing the signature are few, they call for that reason a representative work of the second generation.
Fujishiro rates the smith Jo-, and his designation record is modest: seven blades on record, all at the level, the higher designation tiers not among them. They are a body of late- held in private and long-recorded hands, and one of recorded whereabouts appears from time to time rather than rarely, a more findable thing than a though not on that account common. Provenance survives clearly on one: the Tensho 4 blade was made for Wada Izumo no Kami, a resident of Banshu, its owner inscription reading that it was "to be handed down through the generations of that house", so that the descended through the Wada family as a heritable sword. For a collector the Hikozaemon no Jo Sukesada is the approachable end of a famous name, a dated and signed late- on which the two-mode reading and the generational frame can be worked out in the hand, and on the best of which, as the published sources say of the Tenbun 16 piece, the forging is outstanding.
