Both roundels depict scenes from the Nijushiko ["Twenty Four Paragons of Filial Piety"]. In one, the boy Yang Hiang (Yoko) flings himself between his father and a tiger in a millet field, ultimately sacrificing his own life. In the other, Yen Tzu (Enshi) brings his aged parents milk from a doe for which he had laid in wait in a forest.
These containers were probably used as a metal pill boxes but there are some references to their having been carried as an imitation watch with stem winder by dandies of the period. In the Soken Kisho Inaba refers to netsuke dokei (netsuke watches) produced in Holland and France and complained about how quickly they went out of order.