[1] In the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese navy came to understand the combat effectiveness of small, fast torpedo-equipped warships over larger, slower ships equipped with slow-loading and often inaccurate naval artillery.

All were ordered from Yarrow & Company in Poplar, London, which was considered to be the world's premier builders of destroyers and smaller warships.

[4] All six Ikazuchi-class destroyers arrived in Japan in time to be used during the Boxer Rebellion to patrol the China coast and to cover the landings of Japanese ground troops.

Akebono and Oboro returned to combat service in World War I as part of the Japanese detachment in the Battle of Tsingtao, and in the operation to seize German colonial possessions in the South Pacific.

After the lead ship Ikazuchi suffered a boiler explosion at Ominato harbor due to metal fatigue in its engine on 9 October 1912, and was written off the following year, Sazanami was also retired from service.