The oldest dated blade to survive under the name Yoshisuke is a signed Suruga no ju Yoshisuke and dated the eighth month of Eisho 2 (1505). Its commentary states that among extant works those with an Eisho date are the oldest. Yoshisuke is the principal name of the Shimada school of Suruga, a group whose work the published sources read as strongly marked by neighboring . The sword directories place a first generation in the Kosho era and a second around Eisho and Daiei, and the name then continues in succession into the period. One directory entry instead assigns a Tensho Yoshisuke to a fourth generation. Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection adds the school genealogy: a Yoshisuke of the Kosho era with the Buddhist name Keizen, and his younger brother Sukemune.
The hand that most distinguishes Yoshisuke is the one carried on the . Of the Daiei the published sources write that he received strong influence from work, judging it beyond doubt. The form is with , the curvature shallow and the point an . The flows and stands open, with adhering and entering. Over it he tempers a with a boxed () look that takes in , the somewhat tight with and running. The runs , rounded at the tip with a long return, and is tempered deep. A finished in carries a relief at the waist of the and a on the . The commentary judges and good and the carving skilled, and adds that in this too the blade is close to late work.
The quieter half of his work lives on the and the . There the is tightly forged, with areas of and a tendency toward the , turning somewhat whitish, with forming well. The temper is a shallow mixed with on the and a with on the . On the Eisho it becomes a large with a flavor, tempered deep. The is deep and the adhere well, runs through, and in places the frays into . The is mostly to , and an on the Eisho piece. The carving continues in this register, a within the on one and a with and a - on the .
The recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection widens that register. Its leans to and turns whitish, with mixed in. The takes in , runs frequently and attach, and the runs and returns pointed. The inventory judges this Yoshisuke old among the smiths of the name, while noting that the generations of Yoshisuke and Sukemune are hard to date from their signatures alone. His record therefore reads as two manners sorted by form rather than by date: the -leaning on one side, and the school's and on the other.
The dated tangs are what hold these blades against the directory chronology. In the earlier commentary on the Daiei , the published sources called Daiei the oldest date among extant works, and the inscription on its tang extremely valuable. The Eisho , designated later, moved that anchor back to 1505. A placed perhaps after Tenbun draws its own note, for it carries, unusually, an openwork , and it is judged good in and and a valuable reference piece. The undated is placed around Tenbun, its carving well composed and skilled. No successor line can be drawn through any single hand in so small a record. The published sources value these early pieces instead as material for the study of a name that runs through several generations.
Five designated works are on record, four blades and the of Honma's inventory, all of them signed. He has no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property, and no provenance or institutional holder is recorded for any of his blades. The four blades are of unrecorded whereabouts and are held rather than traded, so a signed Shimada Yoshisuke of rank comes to market only occasionally. When one does, its interest lies where the published sources place it: in a dated tang that anchors the school's chronology, in skilled carving, and in the late character of the .