Like the sister ship Nippon Maru in Leith , Scotland , she was built by the renowned shipyard Ramage & Ferguson Ltd. that had built the København , for example . The shipyard also supplied the complete rig for the two four-masted barges. Both ships sailed for the Japanese Ministry of Culture ( 文部省 ) as training ships on the Pacific . Since 1943 the Kaiwo Maru and the Nippon Maru were subordinate to the state seafaring school ( 航海 訓練 所 ).
The Kaiwo Maru made various trips to the USA, Hawaii and other Pacific ports. During the Second World War , the yards were removed and the ship was used for the Ministry of Post ( 逓 信 省 ) as a cargo motor sailer within Japanese waters. After the war it was used to repatriate Japanese citizens - civil and military alike. Since 1952 she has been sailing again as a sailing training ship and also visited the USA, Canada and the US east coast again. In 1989 it was replaced by the new Kaiwo Maru . In her almost 60-year sea career she has covered a total of 49 circumnavigations of the earth.
