Ibuki (伊吹) was the lead ship in the Ibuki class of armored cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Ibuki was named after Mount Ibuki, located between Gifu and Shiga prefectures in Honshū. On 28 August 1912, the Ibukis were re-classified as battlecruisers.

The Ibuki class , also called the Kurama class , 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.