This small lidded vase has a copper body with an applied gold rim and base plate. The lid is extremely heavy for its size and has a gold knob in the form of a lotus bud. The lid is decorated in yusen enamels with stylised flowers within geometric panels. The main body of the vase is decorated with silver and gold yusen enamels on a mirror-black ground. The three panels of speckled brown enamel contain, respectively, an extraordinary stylised Chinese-style dragon, a mythical Ho-o (phoenix), and peonies and butterflies. These are all executed in finely detailed silver yusen enamels. The areas between and overlapping the panels are decorated with various flowers including chrysanthemums, Hosoge and karakusa scrolls in silver yusen enamels. The shoulders are decorated with stylised geometric panels containing identical butterflies. The foot has fine yusen enamel decoration of stylised petals. The counter-enamel of both the lid and the vase are a dark green to turquoise colour. The base has an applied silver plaque with the engraved four-character mark Kyoto Namikawa. This has been rather poorly made and the characters badly engraved, particularly the first character of 'Kyoto'.
The decoration of the vase is also a little stiff for Yasuyuki: it is known that, following his great success as a maker, signed copies were made of his work. These reservations aside, this vase is very likely to be an original by Yasuyuki: there is, for example, a design for a very similar dragon by Yasuyuki on page 156 of the Kyo Shippo Monyo-shu. For another very similar dragon see Fairley, Japanese Art of the Meiji and Taisho Eras no.12.