富士こそ、まさに日本の近代戦艦の先駆けと呼ぶべき存在です。大日本帝国海軍初の本格的な1万ｔ超えの戦艦です。帝国海軍は清の巨艦 定遠、鎮遠に対抗できる戦艦を、当時世界最大の海軍力を誇り、建造技術も世界随一であったイギリスに発注することを計画しました。しかし、艦の購入予算案が高すぎたため、幾度も却下されてしまいました。究極的には、明治天皇が自ら率先して宮中の歳費節約を呼びかけ、そのことに感銘を受けた国会議員たちが各々の歳費を返上したことで、遂に購入にこぎつけることができました。その時発注された2 艦は富士、八島と命名され、いずれも明治30（1897）年に竣工しました。　短命に終わった八島とは対照的に、日露戦争で主力部隊の一翼を担い活躍した富士は、大東亜戦争が終結するまでの48年間にわたり海軍に在籍していました。

First-class Battleship HIJMS Fuji
The Fuji was called a pioneer of modern Japanese battleships. She was the first ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy to exceed 10,000 tons. The Japanese Imperial Navy planned to order two battleships from Great Britain that would be fully capable of taking on the largest Chinese ships of the Qing dynasty’s Navy, the Dingyuan or Zhenyuan, and possess the most modern technology, and fighting power in the world at that time. However due to budgetary constraints, the purchase of two battleships was put off several times. Ultimately, the Meiji Emperor took the initiative to call for reducing the yearly expenses of the Imperial Court. Parliamentarians who were impressed by this action cut back on their expenditures, allowing Japan to finally purchase the two battleships. Two ships of this class, the Fuji and the Yashima, were completed in Meiji 30 (1897). In contrast to Yashima, which had a short career, the Fuji played a major part in the Russo-Japanese War, and was still on the fleet list at the end of the Greater East Asian War (the Pacific War), serving 48 years in the Imperial Japanese Navy.