This is to my knowledge the earliest preliminary battleship design of the Imperial Japanese Navy which I know the "A" designation of.
This design was from 1906, essentially an improved Aki with superfiring 25cm gun turrets over the 30cm ones which allowed to use the same broadside as the Satsuma class with 2 less 25cm gun turrets. Apart from a sketch drawing showing the layout of the weaponry and a hint of a displacement of 20.000tons, no other info I could get hold of as of yet!
There was an earlier battleship design which did not built and have data of, called the First class Battleship featuring 4x2 30cm turrets on all the same level close to each other, this design most likely predates the Satsuma class and could be considered a design step towards it:
https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/topic/4180-first-class-battleship-design/
Note that Katori class battleships designated as A-6 while the Satsuma class Battleship Satsuma's designation was A-9 and Aki was A-14.
The design had these characteristics:
Dimensions: unknown, I used the same dimensions as Aki so: 146,9 (wl) x 150 (oa) x 25,5 x 8,4m
Displacement: 20.000tons (standard)
Armour: unknown most likely somewhat thicker then Aki's 51mm Deck and 229mm Belt
Engines: Unknown, probably larger du to more space of Aki's 24.000shp
Speed: unknown
Armaments:
2x2 305mm/45 37th Year Type Cannons,
4x2 254mm/45 38th Year Type Cannons,
No data for the other weaponry so I chosen these:
8x1 152mm/45 41st Year Type Guns,
8x1 76mm/40 31st Year Type Guns,
4x1 76mm/25 35th Year Type Guns,
The page showing the sketch:
https://i.imgur.com/2Lmrb9y.jpg