Asahi Maru (旭日丸) was a western-style sail frigate, constructed on orders the Tokugawa shogunate of Bakumatsu period Japan by Mito Domain in response to the Perry Expedition and increasing incursions of foreign warships into Japanese territorial waters.

She was built from 1854 to 1856 on land adjacent to Mito Domain's Edo residence at a site which later became IHI Shipyards, i.e. Ishikawajima island, at the mouth of the Sumida River, in Tokyo.

[1][2] Since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shogunate ruling Japan pursued a policy of isolating the country from outside influences.

[4] Following the July 1853 visit of Commodore Perry, an intense debate erupted within the Japanese government on how to handle the unprecedented threat to the nation's capital, and the only universal consensus was that steps be taken immediately to bolster Japan's coastal defenses.

In December 1853, the domain received official authority from Shōgun Tokugawa Iesada to construct a large warship, based on designs and reverse-engineering from textbooks and reference materials acquired from the Dutch.