after the commissioning of in 1908. The four battlecruisers of the Kongō class were designed to match the naval capabilities of the other major powers at the time; they have been called the battlecruiser version of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship . With their heavy armament and armor protection (which took up 23.3% of their approximately 30,000 ton displacement), Kirishima and her sister ships were vastly superior to any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time. The keel of Kirishima was laid down at the Nagasaki shipyards of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on 17 March 1912, with most of the parts used in her construction manufactured in Japan. Due to a shortage of available slipways, Kirishima and her sister ship were the first two capital ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy to be built in private Japanese shipyards. After her launch on 1 December 1913, Kirishimas fitting-out began later that month. On 15 December 1914, Captain Kamaya Rokuro was assigned as her chief equipping officer, and she was completed on 19 April 1915. Armament Kirishimas main battery consisted of eight heavy-caliber main guns in four twin turrets (two forward, two aft). The turrets were noted by the US Office of Naval Intelligence to be "similar to the British 15-inch turrets", with improvements made in flash-tightness. Each of her main guns could fire high-explosive or armor-piercing shells a maximum distance of at a firing rate of two shells per minute. The ship's magazines could accommodate ninety rounds of ammunition for each of the main guns, which had an approximate barrel life of 250–280 shots. In 1941, dyes were introduced for the armor-piercing shells of the four Kongō-class battleships, with Kirishimas shells using blue dye. Her secondary battery was originally sixteen 50-caliber medium guns in single casemates (all located amidships), eight anti-aircraft guns, and eight submerged torpedo tubes. The sixteen 6-inch/50 caliber guns were capable of firing 5–6 rounds per minute, with a barrel life of 500 rounds. The 6-inch/50 caliber gun was capable of firing both antiaircraft and antiship shells, though the positioning of the guns on Kirishima made antiaircraft firing impractical. During her second reconstruction, the 3-inch guns were removed and replaced with eight guns. These guns could fire between 8 and 14 rounds per minute, with a barrel life of 800–1500 rounds. Designed to fire antiaircraft, antiship, and illumination shells, the 5-inch/40 caliber had the widest variety of shot