Japanese battleship Shikishima

Colorized photo of Shikishima firing during the Battle of the Yellow Sea

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Shikishima, commanded by Captain Izō Teragaki, was assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet. She participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Vice-Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside Port Arthur. Tōgō had expected his surprise night attack on the Russians by his destroyers to be much more successful than it actually was and expected to find them badly disorganised and weakened, but the Russians had recovered from their surprise and were ready for his attack. The Japanese ships were spotted by the cruiser Boyarin which was patrolling offshore and alerted the Russian defences. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be ineffective as the Japanese eight-inch (203 mm) and six-inch guns inflicted very little significant damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect. Although a large number of ships on both sides were hit, Russian casualties numbered only 17 while the Japanese suffered 60 killed and wounded before Tōgō disengaged. During the battle, Shikishima was hit by a single six-inch shell which wounded 17 crewmen.[9]

Shikishima participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. When Makarov spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a naval mine laid by the Japanese the previous night. The Russian battleship sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded; Makarov was one of the 677 killed. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields.[10]

On 14 May, Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki put to sea with the battleships Hatsuse (flag), Shikishima, and Yashima, the protected cruiser Kasagi, and the dispatch boat Tatsuta to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur.[11] On the following morning, the squadron encountered a minefield laid by the Russian minelayer Amur. Hatsuse struck one mine that disabled her steering at 10:50 and Yashima struck another when moving to assist Hatsuse. At 12:33, the latter drifted onto another mine that detonated one of her magazines,[12] killing 496 of her crew and sinking the ship. Yashima's flooding could not be controlled and she foundered about eight hours later, after her crew had abandoned ship.[13]

Shikishima as a disarmed training ship in the 1920s

Shikishima was not hit during the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August, although a shell exploded prematurely in one of her 12-inch guns, disabling it.[14] During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, she was second in the line of battle of the First Division, following Tōgō's flagship Mikasa and was one of the main targets of the Russian battleships. Shikishima was hit nine times during the battle; the most serious of which penetrated beneath a six-inch gun, killing or wounding the entire gun crew. She also had another 12-inch shell prematurely detonate in one of her forward guns, wrecking it completely. In turn, Mikasa and Shikishima concentrated their fire on the battleship Oslyabya which eventually sank after two large-calibre shells blew large holes in her bow at the waterline.[15] These caused massive flooding that sank her, the first modern battleship sunk entirely by gunfire.[16] Shikishima fired a total of 74 twelve-inch, 1,395 six-inch and 1,272 twelve-pounder shells during the battle. She also fired a torpedo at the badly damaged armed merchant cruiser Ural that sank the Russian ship.[17]

During World War I, Shikishima was based at Sasebo during 1914–1915 and was then assigned to the Second and Fifth Squadrons, in that order, for the rest of the war.[18] After the Washington Naval Treaty was signed, she was reclassified as a first-class coast defence ship on 1 September 1921,[7] and was used to train submarine crews[18] until the ship was reclassified as a transport on 1 April 1923.[6] Shikishima continued to be used as a training hulk for the Sasebo Naval Barracks[19] until she was scrapped in January 1948 at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal.[6]