was a Japanese wooden paddle steamer

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

 warship of the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

, serving with the navy of Satsuma Domain, and later with the fledgling Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

.

Service in the Boshin War

Kasuga Maru was built in 1860 in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 by J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White . It came to prominence during the Victorian era...

 of Cowes

Cowes

Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...

, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 under the name Keang Soo (after the area of Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

). as an armed cargo vessel. While at Nagasaki, Keang Soo was purchased by Matsukata Masayoshi

Matsukata Masayoshi

Prince was a Japanese politician and the 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Japan.-Early life:...

 a leading Satsuma samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

on November 3, 1867, for the amount of 160,000 ryō

Ryo (currency)

A was a gold piece in pre-Meiji Japan. It was worth about sixty monme of silver or four kan of copper . It was eventually replaced with a system based on the yen....

 (approx $250,000 at then current exchange rates), whence she was renamed Kasuga Maru. With a speed of 17 knots (33.3 km/h), and six cannons, she was faster than anything in the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

 Navy, and Matsukata intended to convert ship into a warship. However, already alarmed by the high cost (the selling price was four times the budget Matsukata had been authorized to spend), he was overruled by the Shimazu clan

Shimazu clan

The were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō clans in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan,The Shimazu were...

 elders, she was assigned to be used as a cargo ship. In disgust, Matsukata gave up command of the ship he had bought, only to see it converted into a warship just a few months later under the command of his assistant, Akatsuka Genroku.

Kasuga Maru entered Hyōgo harbour on January 1868, where she was blockaded by three ships of the Tokugawa Navy: , and . Tōgō Heihachirō

Togo Heihachiro

Fleet Admiral Marquis was a Fleet Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He was termed by Western journalists as "the Nelson of the East".-Early life:...

, future Admiral of the Fleet

Admiral of the Fleet (Japan)

' was the highest rank in the prewar Imperial Japanese Navy. The term gensui was used for both the Navy and the Imperial Japanese Army, and was a largely honorific title awarded for extremely meritorious service to the Emperor. In the Meiji period, the title was awarded to 5 generals and 3 admirals...

, joined the ship on January 3 as a third-class officer and a gunner.

The night of January 3, Kasuga Maru escaped from Hyōgo harbour with two other ships. She was spotted by Kaiyō Maru, which chased her into Awa Strait. The two ships exchanged fire at a distance of 1,200-2,500 meters, without any actual hits. The exchange was named the Naval Battle of Awa

Naval Battle of Awa

The occurred on 28 January 1868 during the Boshin War in Japan, in the area of Awa Bay near Osaka. Involving ships of the Tokugawa Shogunate and Satsuma vessels loyal to the imperial court in Kyoto, the battle was the second naval battle in Japanese history between modern naval forces...

 and was the first naval battle in Japan between two modern fleets. Kasuga Maru returned to Kagoshima after that exchange.
In March 1869, Kasuga Maru participated in the expedition against the last remnants of the pro-Tokugawa forces in Hokkaido

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

, where they had formed the Republic of Ezo

Republic of Ezo

The ' was a short-lived state established by former Tokugawa retainers in what is now known as Hokkaidō, the large but sparsely populated northernmost island in modern Japan.-Background:...

 with the support of a few French military advisors such as Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet was a French officer who played an active role in Mexico and Japan, and later became a General and Chief of Staff of the French Minister of War in 1898...

.

While at Miyako Bay

Miyako, Iwate

is a city located in Iwate, Japan.It was founded on February 11, 1941.The city lies along the coast where the flows into the Pacific Ocean. It is connected to Morioka by an east-west train line and highway and the coastal highway also goes through the town...

, the expedition suffered a surprise attack by the Bakufu ship . Kaiten attacked the state-of-the art ironclad ship , but she was repulsed by Gatling gun

Gatling gun

The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...

s onboard the Kōtetsu and cannon response by Kasuga Maru. The encounter has been named the Naval Battle of Miyako Bay.

After these events Kasuga Maru participated in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, until the surrender of the last forces of the Republic of Ezo.

Service in the Imperial Japanese Navy

In April 1870, Kasuga Maru was transferred from the Satsuma Domain to the Meiji government and assigned to the newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy, and was renamed Kasuga at that time. In 1872, under the command of Itō Toshiyoshi

Ito Toshiyoshi

Baron was an admiral in the early Imperial Japanese Navy, and served as the first Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff in the late 19th century.-Biography:Itō was born in Tanabe Domain, in what is now part of Maizuru city, Kyoto prefecture...

, she carried Japanese envoys to Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 as part of Japan's ongoing attempts to obtain diplomatic recognition

Diplomatic recognition

Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral political act with domestic and international legal consequences, whereby a state acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state...

 from Joseon dynasty

Joseon Dynasty

Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...

 Korea. The failure of this mission was one of the underlying factors in the subsequent Ganghwa Island incident

Ganghwa Island incident

The Ganghwa Island incident or the Japanese Battle of Ganghwa , was an armed encounter between the Joseon Dynasty and Japan which occurred in the vicinity of Ganghwa Island on September 20, 1875.-Background:...

 of 1875, during which Kasuga was assigned to blockade the port of Busan

Busan

Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...

.

Under the command of Inoue Yoshika

Inoue Yoshika

- Notes :...

, Kasuga was also one of the ships which participated in the Taiwan Expedition of 1874

Taiwan Expedition of 1874

The , usually referred to in Taiwan and mainland China as the Mudan incident , was a punitive expedition launched by the Japanese in retaliation for the murder of 54 Ryukyuan sailors by Paiwan aborigines near the southwestern tip of Taiwan in December 1871...

.

Kasuga was demobilized in 1894 and then assigned to the mine-laying group at Tsushima

Tsushima

-Places:* Tsushima, Nagasaki, a city in Nagasaki Prefecture * Tsushima Basin, also known as Ulleung Basin, located at the juncture of the Sea of Japan and the Korea Strait* Tsushima Island, part of Nagasaki Prefecture...

. She was sold for scrap in 1902.