 The three cruisers designed by Emile Bertin ("Matsushima", "Itsukushima", and "Hashidate") were equipped with 12.6in (32 cm) Canet guns, an extremely powerful weapon for the time.These efforts contributed to the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese war.This period also allowed Japan "to embrace the revolutionary new technologies embodied in torpedoes, torpedo-boats and mines, of which the French at the time were probably the world's best exponents".