was one of four principal naval

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s owned and operated by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

History

The

Maizuru Naval District was one of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the entire Sea of Japan coastline from northern Kyūshū to western Hokkaidō. History The strategic importance of the location of Maizu ...

was established at

Maizuru is a city in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 78,644 in 34817 households and a population density of 230 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Maizuru is located in northern Kyoto Pref ...

, Kyoto Prefecture in 1889, as the fourth of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the

Japanese home islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chi ...

. After the establishment of the navy base, a ship repair facility was established in 1901 with a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

. With the addition of equipment and facilities for ship production by 1903, the Maizuru Naval Arsenal was officially established. Additional dry docks were completed in 1904 and 1914. When the No. 3 dry dock was completed in 1914, it was the largest in Japan at the time. In 1923, after the

Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...

, there were discussions within the Navy Ministry about closing the facility, and it was largely mothballed until 1936. Afterwards, it reopened and expanded, building ships, aircraft and weapons for the military. It specialized mostly in

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

-size and smaller vessels.

Post WW II

In the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

period, a private company, Iino Industries Co. Ltd., took over and formed the Maizuru Shipyards. In 1963, the name was changed to Maizuru Heavy Industries. In 1971, it was merged with

Hitachi Zosen Corporation is a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation. It produces waste treatment plants, industrial plants, precision machinery, industrial machinery, steel mill process equipment, steel structures, construction machinery, tunnel boring ma ...

. In 2002, Hitachi Zosen spun off the shipbuilder into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with JFE Engineering called Universal Shipbuilding Corporation. Universal Shipbuilding Corporation and IHI Marine United Inc. united and became

Japan Marine United (informally JMU) is a Japanese ship building marine engineering and service company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. It's Japan’s second largest shipbuilder after Imabari Shipbuilding, with shipyard facilities in Kure, Hiroshima, Yokohama, ...

in 2013. The former head office and some warehouses associated with the shipyards are preserved as commemorative museums by the Maizuru city government. The pre-war dry docks and one of the large cranes are still in use today.

Ships built at Maizuru Naval Arsenal

Russo-Japanese War

* Kamikaze-class (1905): Oite, Yūnagi, Uranami, Isonami, Ayanami

World War I

* Umikaze-class: Umikaze * Sakura-class: Sakura, Tachibana * Kaba-class: Kaede * Minekaze-class: Minekaze, Okikaze, Shimakaze, Nadakaze, Shiokaze, Tachikaze, Hokaze, Nokaze, Namikaze, Numakaze * Wakatake-class: Kuretake * Enoki-class: Enoki * Momo-class: Kashi, Hinoki

World War II

* 3 of 9 : ''Harukaze'', ''Matsukaze'', ''Hatakaze'' * 2 of 12 : ''Kisaragi'', ''Kikuzuki'' * 6 of 24 : ''Fubuki'', ''Hatsuyuki'', ''Shikinami'', ''Yūgiri'', ''Sazanami'', ''Hibiki'' * 1 of 6 : ''Yugure'' * 2 of 10 : ''Harusame'', ''Umikaze'' * 2 of 10 : ''Ōshio'', ''Arare'' * 5 of 19 : ''Kagerō'', ''Oyashio'', ''Amatsukaze'', ''Nowaki'', ''Arashi'' * 6 of 19 : ''Yūgumo'', ''Makinami'', ''Hayanami'', ''Hamanami'', ''Okinami'', ''Hayashimo'' * '' Shimakaze'' * 4 of 12 : ''Akizuki'', ''Hatsuzuki'', ''Fuyutsuki'', ''Hanazuki'' * 10 of 32 Matsu/Tachibana-class: ''Matsu'', ''Momo'', ''Maki'', ''Kaya'', ''Tsubaki'', ''Nire'', ''Shii'', ''Enoki'', ''Odake'', ''Hatsuume'' total: 41 of 153 (27%) of Japanese destroyers that were relevant during WW2

References

* *

External links

Maizuru Naval Arsenal Commemorative Museum (in Japanese)
{{Authority control Imperial Japanese Navy Shipbuilding companies of Japan Defunct companies of Japan Shipyards building World War II warships