Seaside landscape scenes cast in high relief decorate both the front and back sides. On one side, a silver sea bird (“chidori” or plover) skims over the waves, where inlaid silver spots sparkle as foam. On the other side, a silver full moon rises above a seaside landscape scene, where the waves are also dotted with sparkling silver bubbles of froth. All the raised silver inlays are done in the taka-zogan technique, the process of hammering the silver into grooves cut into the iron. Temples or houses cast in low relief are appear on the distant shores. The bronze handle is also inlaid with two silver chidori flying above engraved waves. The ends of the removable handle were forged into large curls that fit through the arched cast iron bodies of two kylin dragon-like creatures, which form the unusual handle mounts. The wonderfully patinated brown bronze lid bears an engraved four character mark which is an early variant of the “Dai Nihon” mark (“Great Japan Made”) which was used in the early years of the Meiji period.

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. Works by this important tetsubin maker are rare and much sought after by collectors today.