Ōita

Ōita lies in the former province of Bungo on eastern Kyushu. The coastal port of Funai was the area's main urban center and became the seat of the Ōtomo, who were appointed military governors of Bungo in the Kamakura period.

By the sixteenth century the Ōtomo had extended their power across much of Kyushu. Funai became a center of contact with Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries, and of the new religious and technical influences they brought. The family's power subsequently declined amid warfare. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Funai became the center of a domain later ruled by the Ogyū-Matsudaira family.