("Morning wind") was one of 32 s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century.
The Kamikaze-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding .[1] They displaced 381LT at normal load and 450LT at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of 227feet and an overall length of 234feet, a beam of 21feet and a draught of 6feet. The Kamikazes were powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam produced by four Kampon water-tube boilers. The engines produced a total of 6000ihp that gave the ships a maximum speed of 29kn. They carried a maximum of 100LT of coal[2] which gave them a range of 1500nmi at a speed of . Their crew consisted of 70 officers and ratings.[3]
The main armament of the Kamikaze-class ships consisted of two 40-calibre quick-firing (QF) 3inches 12 cwt guns[4] on single mounts; the forward gun was located on superstructure, but the aft gun was at the stern. Four 28-calibre QF three-inch 8 cwt guns on single mounts were positioned abreast the superstructure, two in each broadside. The ships were also armed with two single rotating mounts[1] [3] for 450adj=onNaNadj=on[5] torpedoes between the superstructure and the stern gun. When Asakaze was converted into a minesweeper in 1924, she was rearmed with a pair of 12cm (05inches) 3rd Year Type guns taken from older ships on single mounts and the three-inch 8 cwt guns were removed.[1]
Asakaze was launched at Mitsubishi's shipyard in Nagasaki on 28 October 1905[1] and completed on 24 February 1906. The ship saw service in World War I and participated in the Siberian Expedition. She was converted into a minesweeper on 1 December 1924 and was decommissioned on 1 April 1928, although Asakaze remained in use until 31 January 1929. She was sunk as a target by the battlecruisers and on 1 August.[6]