"Matsu" was laid down at Mitsubishi's shipyard in Nagasaki on 3 November 1914, launched on 5 March 1915 and completed on 6 April. During World War I the ship patrolled the area around Singapore and later served as a convoy escort in the Mediterranean Sea. "Matsu" was damaged during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, but was repaired. She was stricken from the navy list in November 1931, was decommissioned on 1 April 1932 and subsequently broken up.