The silver body of each vase has an applied silver-gilt rim and inner neck ring together with a silver base plate. The main body is decorated with carp and pondweed on a background that has been hammered all over (nanako). The fish and weed have also been hammered prior to silver foil being applied to some areas. Graded transparent coloured enamels have then been applied to the ground and to parts of the fish. Some areas on the bodies of the carp have been left clear of coloured enamel so that the hammered bright copper body can be seen through it. The vases have then been covered with a clear enamel finish. Placed side by side the two vases give the impression of fish meeting under a broad expanse of water. The silver-gilt inner base-plates carry the stamped two-character mark Shuzo within an oval ring. See Coben & Ferster plate 114 for a larger single vase by Ogasawara Shuzo with very similar decoration; Barry Davies no.12 for a large vase by Hayashi Kodenji with similar decoration; and Kozyreff p.372 for a piece by Ogasawara Takajiro acquired at the Exposition Universelle de Liège in 1905.