Kinugasa and her sister ship Aoba were originally planned as the third and fourth vessels in the Furutaka class of heavy cruisers.

At the Battle of the Coral Sea, CruDiv 6 departed Shortland and effected a rendezvous at sea with the light carrier Shōhō At 11:00 on 7 May 1942, north of Taguli Island, Shōhō was attacked and sunk by 93 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers from USS Yorktown and Lexington.

The following day, 46 SBDs, 21 TBDs and 15 Grumman F4F Wildcats from Yorktown and Lexington severely damaged the carrier Shōkaku above the waterline and forced her retirement.

Following the major reorganization of 14 July 1942, Kinugasa came under the newly created Eighth Fleet under Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa, based at Rabaul.

At the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 October 1942, CruDiv 6's (Aoba, Furutaka and Kinugasa), and destroyers Fubuki and Hatsuyuki departed Shortland to provide cover for a troop reinforcement convoy by shelling Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.

So alerted, the radar-equipped American cruisers USS San Francisco, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Helena and five destroyers steamed around the end of Guadalcanal to block the entrance to Savo Sound.

Just a few days later, on the night of 14/15 October 1942, Kinugasa returned and together with heavy cruiser Chokai bombarded Henderson Field with a total of 752 8-inch shells.

From 24–26 October and 1–5 November, Kinugasa and Chōkai provided cover for replacement convoys of troops and equipment to bolster Japanese defenses at Guadalcanal.

At 09:36, a 500-pound bomb hit Kinugasa's 13.2 mm (0.5 in) machine gun mount in front of the bridge, starting a fire in the forward gasoline storage area.

Near-misses caused additional fires and flooding and a second attack by 17 more Dauntlesses knocked out Kinugasa's engines and rudder and opened more compartments to the sea.