 Perhaps for this reason, he was given command of the corvette "Tsukuba" on 15 May 1889 and sent to sea for two years.Afterwards, he was assigned command of , the cruiser , Yokosuka Naval District, and the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy before being appointed commander-in-chief of the Sasebo Naval District.Shibayama was promoted to rear admiral on 30 July 1894 in time for the First Sino-Japanese War.