The engine was designed to produce 2,500 indicated horsepower (1,900 kW) to give the Kongō-class ironclads a speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph).

[9] During the 1880s, the armament of the ship was reinforced with the addition of four quadruple-barreled 25-millimeter (1.0 in) Nordenfelt and two quintuple-barreled 11-millimeter (0.4 in) Nordenfeldt machine guns for defense against torpedo boats.

[4] The contract for Hiei was awarded to Milford Haven Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. in Pembroke Dock, Wales, on 24 September 1875 for the price of £119,600, exclusive of armament.

Japanese sources universally give the date for Hiei's keel-laying as 24 September 1875—the same as that for the awarding of the contract—but historian Hans Langerer describes this as improbable, arguing that no shipyard would order enough material to begin construction without cash in hand.

She was launched on 12 June 1877; Reed's daughter smashed a bottle of champagne on the ship's bow in the traditional Western style.

One of the passengers aboard her was the future admiral Togo Heihachiro, who had just completed six years of study in the United Kingdom.

On 10 July a formal ceremony was held in Yokohama for the receipt of the ship that was attended by the Meiji Emperor and many senior government officials.

Together with her sister ship Kongō, Hiei sailed from Shinagawa, Tokyo on 13 August 1889 on a training cruise to the Mediterranean with cadets from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, returning on 2 February 1890.

On 5 October the sisters departed Shinagawa for Kobe to pick up the 69 survivors of the wrecked Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul and continued on to Istanbul, Turkey to return them to their homeland.

Making stops at Alexandria, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong, the sisters arrived at Shinagawa on 10 May.

[15] She was the last ship in the Japanese line during the Battle of the Yalu River in September and was heavily damaged[16] when her captain decided to pass through the Chinese fleet rather than try to keep up with the faster Main Squadron.

[16] Hiei was transferred to the West-Sea Fleet on 14 October, and the sisters were assigned to the Second Raiding Unit in December for operations against the Chinese port of Weihaiwei.

[18] Hiei took part in the invasion of Formosa in 1895, and participated in the bombardment of the Chinese coastal forts at Takow (Kaohsiung) on 13 October 1895.