Seaside landscape scenes cast in high relief decorate both the front and back sides, enhanced by raised silver inlays. All the inlays are done in the taka-zogan technique, the process of hammering the silver into grooves cut into the iron. On one side, two silver sea birds (“chidori” or plovers) skim over rough foaming waves, where inlaid silver spots sparkle as foam on the breaking crests. On the other side, a silver full moon rises above the waves, which are also dotted with sparkling silver bubbles of froth. Temples and lanterns cast in low relief appear on the distant shores. The ends of the removable bronze handle, which is also inlaid with two silver chidori, were forged into large curls that fit through the arched cast iron bodies of two kylin dragon-like creatures that form the unusual handle mounts. The inside of the bronze lid is unsigned, and the bronze finial is inlaid with silver.

Tetsubin were popular in Japan as everyday household utensils and for informal and semi-formal tea drinking. During the second half of the 19th century, tetsubin made especially as tea utensils came to be highly esteemed. They were often elaborately decorated with cast iron ornament or with inlays of copper, gold or silver. Fine ornamental tetsubin of this type were preferred by the upper classes for the sencha style tea ceremony. A common characteristic of these sencha kettles was that one side more heavily decorated than the other. In the sencha tea ceremony a tetsubin, held by the host in his right hand, is looked at by the guest with the spout pointing to the right. This is the side of the tetsubin which is usually more ornately decorated in order to enable the guest to admire the kettle’s “best” side.