Maya (摩耶) was an iron-hulled, steam gunboat, serving in the early Imperial Japanese Navy.[1] She was the lead vessel in the four vessel Maya class, and was named after Mount Maya in Kobe.
Maya was an iron-ribbed, iron-sheathed, two-masted gunboat with a horizontal double expansion reciprocating steam engine with two cylindrical boilers driving two screws.[2] She also had two masts for a schooner sail rig.
Maya was laid down at the Onohama Shipyards in Kobe on 1 June 1885 and launched on 18 August 1886. She was completed on 20 January 1888.[3]
Maya saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Hashimoto Masaaki, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and escorting Japanese transports.
On 21 March 1898, Maya was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties.[3]
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Maya assisted in the Siege of Port Arthur, and also made a sortie up the Yalu River to attack Russian positions, and was part of the Japanese fleet for the invasion of Sakhalin.[4] She was rearmed with four 4.7 in (120 mm) QF guns and two quadruple 1-inch Nordenfelt guns in 1906.
She was removed from active combat status on 16 May 1908, and was used as a training vessel at the Yokosuka Naval District. Maya was removed from the navy list and transferred to the Home Ministry on 1 December 1911[3] for use as a police boat in Kobe harbor. She was subsequently demilitarized and sold in December 1918 to a commercial trading firm, Ikeda Shoji, who used her as a transport until she was scrapped in 1932.