Pagoda masts were built on existing
tripod masts by adding searchlight and other platforms, lookouts and shelters upon each other, the result resembling a
pagoda temple. The superstructures were constructed on the majority of the ships that were rebuilt by the Japanese during the 1930s, including the s and the , , and -class
battleships. The additional platforms were supported on the ships' original tripod foremasts (a design also extensively used by the
Royal Navy), which were suitably strengthened to bear the extra weight. As completed, the masts could reach or more above the waterline. Like the British
Royal Navy, which was considered to be a likely enemy of Japan in the event of an armed conflict, the Imperial Japanese Navy wanted to prepare their warships for engaging in night combat. Before the outbreak of
World War II, powerful searchlights were placed on the pagoda masts to illuminate enemy ships at night. In the navies of Europe and the Americas, tall pagoda-style masts were generally frowned upon.
Naval architects and sailors from the Western hemisphere claimed that the Japanese battleships were too "top-heavy"; critics often mocked these vessels by nicknaming them "
Christmas Trees". Uniquely, the battleship
Hiei received a prototype of the pagoda-style tower-mast that would eventually be used on the upcoming s, then still in the design phase, rather than the pagoda masts used on her sister ships and other modernized World War I–era capital ships. During the same interwar period, the Royal Navy implemented the "
Queen Anne's Mansions"–style conning tower and bridge, either for retrofitted World War I–era battleships (three of the , ) or for new battleships (the and classes). Between World War I and World War II, the US Navy gradually phased out the
lattice masts on its
Standard-type battleships in favor of
tripod masts, and after
Pearl Harbor some of the salvaged battleships were reconstructed with masts similar to those on its post-treaty battleships. File:Yamashiro and Kaga.jpg|Japanese battleship
Yamashiro (foreground) in October 1930, with original tripod mast File:Japanese battleships Yamashiro, Fuso and Haruna.jpg|Pagoda masts on the battleships
Yamashiro (foreground),
Fusō and
Haruna File:Yamato sea trials 2.jpg|
Yamato, lead ship of Japan's largest and final battleship class ==Example==