Akagi was a iron-hulled, two-masted gunboat with a horizontal double expansion reciprocating steam engine with two boilers driving two screws. Akagi was laid down at the Onohama Shipyards on July 20, 1886 and launched on August 7, 1888. She was completed on August 20, 1890.

Akagi saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and Weihaihei and played a critical role at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was assigned to protect the converted ocean liner Sei-Kyo Maru carrying Admiral Kabeyama Sukenori. During the battle, Akagi took a direct hit from one of the ships in the opposing Beiyang Fleet, which killed her captain, Sakamoto Hachirota.

On 21 March 1898, Akagi was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties. During the Boxer Rebellion, Akagi was assigned to patrol off the Taku Forts.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Akagi assisted in the Siege of Port Arthur and the Invasion of Sakhalin. While on patrol outside Port Arthur on May 18, 1904 she collided with the gunboat Ōshima.

She was removed the navy list on April 1, 1911, and after being demilitarized, was sold as a transport in March 1912 to the Kawasaki Kisen Corporation as the Akagi Maru. She was again sold in 1921 to the Amagasaki Steamship Lines, and sank in 1945 during a typhoon. She was raised, and placed into service again, only to be sunk by a naval mine off of Okayama Prefecture in January 1946. Raised once more and repaired, she was placed back into service, until she was finally scrapped at Osaka in 1953