Tomoko Higashikata

Tomoko Higashikata (東方 朋子) is a minor character in Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable.

She is the single mother of Josuke Higashikata, the series' protagonist.

Appearance
Tomoko is a woman of seemingly average height and slim to medium build. She wears dark, straight, roughly neck-length hair.

Personality
A single mother and teacher, Tomoko is known to show a strong temperament.

When Jotaro visits looking for Josuke, she breaks into tears and hugs him, confusing him for Joseph; with whom she appears to remain in love. It is not known whether she knew he was married during their romance.

She is fond of a particular sponge cake from Kamakura.

When afraid, Tomoko tends to swallow her own saliva.

History
Sometime before the events of Part IV, She had an relationship with Joseph Joestar while still in college. The 52 year old man, however, was married with Suzie Q at the time, and so Tomoko didn't tell him that she was pregnant with his illegitimate child, Josuke, of which Joseph had knowledge of only when the boy was 16. When Josuke was developing his stand and became ill (much like his half sister, Holy Kujo), she drove through a blizzard to take him to the hospital, though this resulted in the car being lodged in the snow. They were eventually saved by a high school student with a pompadour, who had thrown his coat under the car, allowing it to plow through.

Diamond is Unbreakable
Tomoko is introduced as a short-tempered woman, assaulting a man who offered a ride to her. She then receives the visit a from Jotaro Kujo, whom she mistakes for Joseph and hugs. In tears, she confesses her love for him, but backs off bewildered when Jotaro lets her down that he isn't Joseph. She takes a long time to change Ryohei Higashikata´s bedroom, depressed of his death by a brain tumor (which was actually the doing of Aqua Necklace).

Later on, she is attacked by Terunosuke Miyamoto, who invades her house and turns her into paper with his Enigma after seeing her sign of fear. Terunosuke then used her to see Josuke´s sign of fear, but was defeated by Josuke and Yuuya Fungami and Tomoko was saved.

The Book: 4th Another Day
(The information below derives from a Light Novel not written by Araki. As such, it may or may not be consideredcanon.)

Tomoko is accidentally attacked by Takuma and retains serious injuries, making Josuke confront him about it.

Steel Ball Run
Tomoko's counterpart in the Steel Ball Run universe is the mother of Norisuke Higashikata IV, who was given the name "Josuke" at birth. However, she married Norisuke Higashikata III and into the Higashikata family from the outside. Her husband's birth name is "Joshou", which bears similarity to the first name of "Joseph Joestar".