	"Kinu" was completed on 10 November 1922 at the Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe. She was briefly commanded by Captain Koshirō Oikawa from December 1923 to January 1924. One year after commissioning, she returned to dry dock for the replacement of all four of her turbine engines, which had failed. The repair work was completed in May 1924. From 1934 to 1935 she was largely used as a training vessel. She was under the command of Captain Shigeyoshi Miwa from November 1935 to December 1936. As the Second Sino-Japanese War began to escalate, she supported landings of Japanese troops in central and southern China, and patrolled the China coast from 1937 to 1938.