The Tosa-class battleships were two dreadnoughts ordered as part of the "Eight-Eight" fleet for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the early 1920s. The ships were larger versions of the preceding Nagato class, and carried an additional 41-centimeter (16.1 in) twin-gun turret. The design for the class served as a basis for the Amagi-class battlecruisers.
Scale model of Kaga as originally designed
A 41 cm gun on display at the Yamato Museum in Kure, Japan
Tosa, partly complete, being towed from Nagasaki in 1922
Kaga, seen from the stern, under construction in Yokosuka naval yard in November 1928; note the large pipe that directed exhaust smoke down, away from any landing aircraft
The Nagato-class battleships were a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) towards the end of World War I, although they were not completed until after the war. The last of Japan's pre-Treaty capital ships, they were the first class to carry 41 cm (16.1 in) guns, the largest afloat and the first bigger than 15 inches (381 mm). Nagato, the lead ship of the class, frequently served as a flagship. Both ships carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. They were modernized in 1933–1936 with improvements to their armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nagato and her sister ship Mutsu briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and Nagato was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that began the Pacific War.
Nagato at sea
Office of Naval Intelligence recognition drawing of the Nagato class
A 41 cm 3rd Year Type gun from Mutsu on display at the Yamato Museum in Kure, Japan
A twin 127 mm gun mount aboard Nagato