Jingei (迅鯨, Swift Whale) [1] was a wooden-hulled paddle steamer warship of the early Imperial Japanese Navy.

[2] Jingei was designed by Léonce Verny, a French naval engineer initially hired by the Tokugawa shogunate, who stayed on as a foreign advisor to the early Meiji government as chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal.

The steam-powered vessel with two side paddle-wheels was laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 26 September 1873 and was the first vessel to be laid down at that shipyard; however, due to the lack of local technical expertise and the need to create the infrastructure to support her construction, she took a total of seven years and ten months to complete.

Initially intended to serve as an ocean-going imperial yacht, Jingei was completed with luxurious internal fittings.

On 15 April 1882, Jingei accidentally rammed the American survey vessel USS Alert which was steaming in Kii Channel en route from Kobe to Yokohama.