Ibuki-class armored cruiser

A postcard of Kurama at anchor, 1913
Class overview
Name	Ibuki
Builders	Kure Naval Arsenal Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Operators	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by	Tsukuba class
Succeeded by	Kongō class
Subclasses	Ibuki
Built	1905–1911
In service	1909–1921
Completed	2
Scrapped	2
General characteristics (Kurama)
Type	Armored cruiser (later reclassified as battlecruiser)
Displacement	14,636 long tons (14,871 t) (normal) 15,595 long tons (15,845 t) (full load)
Length	450 feet (137.2 m) (p.p.) 485 feet (147.8 m) (o.a.)
Beam	75 feet 6 inches (23.0 m)
Draft	26 feet 1 inch (8.0 m)
Installed power	22,500 shp (16,800 kW) 28 × Miyahara water-tube boilers
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph)
Complement	817
Armament	2 × twin 12-inch 41st Year Type guns 4 × twin 8-inch (200 mm) 41st Year Type guns 14 × single 4.7-inch (120 mm) 41st Year Type guns 4 × single 3-inch (76 mm) guns 4 × single 3-inch (76 mm) AA guns 3 × submerged 17.7 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 102–178 mm (4–7 in) Deck: 51 mm (2.0 in) Bulkheads: 25 mm (1.0 in) Barbettes: 51–178 mm (2.0–7.0 in) Turrets: 229 mm (9.0 in) Conning Tower: 203 mm (8.0 in)

The Ibuki class (伊吹型, Ibuki-gata), also called the Kurama class (鞍馬型, Kurama-gata), was a ship class of two large armoured cruisers (Sōkō jun'yōkan) built for the Imperial Japanese Navy after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. These ships reflected Japanese experiences during that war as they were designed to fight side-by-side with battleships and were given an armament equal to, or superior to existing Japanese battleships. The development of the battlecruiser the year before Ibuki was completed made her and her sister ship Kurama obsolete before they were completed because the foreign battlecruisers were much more heavily armed and faster.

Both ships played a small role in World War I as they unsuccessfully hunted for the German East Asia Squadron and the commerce-raider SMS Emden and protected troop convoys in the Pacific Ocean shortly after the war began. The ships were sold for scrap in 1923 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.