The name means peak wind. Minekaze was the lead ship of the Minekaze class, large destroyers built to escort the battlecruisers of the planned Amagi class. Maizuru Naval Arsenal laid her down on 20 April 1918, launched her on 8 February 1919 and completed her on 29 May 1920. She served in Destroyer Division 2 with Sawakaze, Okikaze and Yakaze. From 1930 to 1932 the division escorted the carrier Akagi to rescue downed aircrew, and during the First Shanghai Incident in 1932 she patrolled the Yangtze. In 1937 and 1938 she patrolled the north and central China coast.
At Pearl Harbor she was in the Chinkai Guard District in Korea, patrolling the Tsushima Strait and the Kuril coast. From April 1942 she was in the Sasebo Naval District. On 9 May 1942 she helped rescue passengers of Taiyo Maru, sunk by an American submarine on the way to southeast Asia with many civilian engineers and technicians. At the end of September she escorted convoys to Saipan, Truk and Rabaul, and from November 1942 to February 1944 she patrolled and escorted in the East China Sea.
On 1 February 1944 she joined the 1st Surface Escort Division of the General Escort Command. Four days later she left Moji with a convoy for Takao. USS Pogy sighted the convoy off the east coast of Taiwan and torpedoed her on 10 February 1944. She was struck from the Navy List on 31 March 1944.
Sources: Wikipedia, Japanese destroyer Minekaze, rewritten here.