Scale: 1:48. The earlier Japanese battleships followed British designs very closely, the ships actually being built in Great Britain. In the ‘Aki’ (1907) and ‘Satsuma’, the first battleships built in Japan, the resemblance to the British ‘Lord Nelson’ was still noticeable, though not so striking, the Japanese ships being much larger and faster. The ‘Aki’ was built at Kure and was the first large Japanese ship to have turbine engines; these were made in the United States. ‘Aki’s’ armament was formidable: four 12-inch, twelve 10-inch, eight 6-inch, and eight 3-inch guns. Almost 20,000 tons displacement, she had a cruising speed of 20.5 knots. She was struck off the navy list in 1923.

The model, resplendent in its ornate black lacquered case with gold embellishments, was one of a gift of six models of the Japanese Government to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in 1910. The Royal Naval College Museum catalogue, 1913, records their presentation ‘as a token of their sincere gratitude for the kindness and courtesy which Japanese Constructors and Engineers have experienced at the hands of the authorities of the Royal Naval College on the occasion of their studies there’. Admiral Togo had trained there as a naval officer, and had returned to attend the Royal Naval Coronation Fleet Review held in 1911. This model is unusual in that the ship is depicted with her port side torpedo nets extended.