The Asahi Maru was one of the first Western-style sail warships of Japan following the period of Seclusion. She was ordered by the Tokugawa

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...

 bakufu to the fief of Mito

Mito, Ibaraki

is the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and has a central location, moderately offset towards the coast in that prefecture. As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 263,748 and a total area is 217.45 km², giving a population density of 1,212.91 persons per km²...

, her construction started in 1854, and she was completed in 1856.

She was 42.3 meters in length, her beam was 9.1 meters, draught 7.2 meters. She weighed 750 tons.