Nippon Maru, Four-masted barque in Minatomirai, Yokohama, Japan

Nippon Maru is a four-masted barque 97 metres long with a beam of 12.95 metres, rigged with 32 sails covering 2,397 square metres. Its white hull carries a dark red stripe at the waterline and the name "NIPPON MARU" in dark lettering above a gold emblem near the bow. Four light-wood masts crossed by horizontal yards rise above the deck, with rigging lines running between them and down to the deck.

Launched in Kobe on 27 January 1930, Nippon Maru was designed by Ramage & Ferguson of Scotland and built by Kawasaki Shipbuilding after the 1927 loss of the training ship Kirishima Maru. Its rig was removed in 1943 for coal transport, then restored in 1952. It trained about 11,500 cadets and sailed some 1.83 million km before retirement on 16 September 1984.

The ship's nickname, "Swan of the Pacific," comes from its white hull and tall masts. About 100 citizen volunteers help hoist all 29 sails during the total sail drill held 12 times a year; before it, trainees perform the masthead salute, the highest honor in sail training.

The ship is moored in a drained exhibition dock, so you view the hull from below as well as the deck; the dock water was emptied in 2019 for the first time in 20 years. All 29 sails are furled except during the twelve total-sail events a year, when about 100 volunteers help set them; sails are removed from early December to early March. Check the park's website for dates, which change annually.

The dock holding the ship is the former Yokohama Dockyard No. 1 Dock, itself an Important Cultural Property. During a two-year refit from fiscal 2018, the dock was drained for the first time in 20 years and opened for public viewing in January 2019. The ship still passes annual inspections under the Ship Safety Law as a vessel licensed for flat-water navigation.