Ibuki-class armored cruiser

A postcard of Kurama at anchor, 1913
Class overview
Name:	Ibuki-class armored cruiser
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 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.