A twenty-seven-year-old Kamakura houseman placed over the two provinces on the northern edge of Kyūshū, the eastern half of the Dazaifu's old territory: Bungo, with its seat at Funai (Ōita), and Buzen, with the great shrine of Usa.
He is the youngest and least rooted of the three Kyūshū families that Kamakura sets up. His house will in time rule Bungo for four centuries; in 1200 the appointment is weak, the local families (Ogata, Ōno and others) hold the ground, and the Usa and Aso estates owe him nothing but the peace.
Who he is
- Name
- Ōtomo Yoshinao
- Title
- Constable (shugo) of Bungo and Buzen, by house tradition
- Since
- The house genealogy gives 1196; English Wikipedia says only 'after 1185'; the brief marks the date disputed
- Born
- 1172; on the likely course he dies in 1223 (English Wikipedia)
- Family
- First head of the Ōtomo; took the name from the Ōtomo district in Sagami. The genealogy calls him Yoritomo's illegitimate son, which modern scholarship rejects (Fujiwara descent) [en]; the brief and recollection give him as a ward or adopted son of Nakahara Chikayoshi, a Kamakura clerk. His son Chikahide is born 1195 [en]
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Ōtomo clan) for the family and the doubt; the adoption by Chikayoshi is recollection.
Overlord
Minamoto no Yoriie (Kamakura)
What it holds
- The constable's charge over Bungo and Buzen (house tradition)
- Estates (Ōtomo-no-shō) he took by inheritance and Kamakura's grant
How it was acquired
By Kamakura's grant, date disputed (1196 in the genealogy).
Allies and rivals
Allied with Nakahara Chikayoshi and the Kamakura clerks; rivals: the Usa Hachimangū's men and the Ōno and Ogata local families, and the Shōni of Dazaifu.
How things stand that morning
He may not yet be in the province himself. His standing is that of a young man whose post depends on Kamakura's quarrels staying quiet; the sources we could read give no dated act in Bungo on or before 1 January 1200.
Wealth
Revenues of his estates and the constable's rights; no figure used.
Military
His own housemen; no numbers.
Threats
- Local families
- Kamakura's internal quarrels
Places of note
- Funai (Bungo kokufu): Provincial seat of Bungo
Where the sources disagree
- Board (bungo-kokufu): 'the appointment is set at 1196'. Kept as house tradition.
Evidence: English Wikipedia (Ōtomo clan) and the brief; dates are house tradition.
On the map: Claimed only: the constable's charge is not the land.
Primary sources for Kyoto court
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
- Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
- Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
- Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
- Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
- Ōtomo clan, English Wikipedia
- Shugo, English Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.