The Ōtomo were saved by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1586-1587 Kyūshū campaign and were allowed to reclaim Bungo Province as their territory.

However, Ōtomo Yoshimune (Sōrin's son) behaved in a cowardly manner during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) which so angered Hideyoshi that he was deprived of his fief and was banished.

Their territory passed to Sugiwara Nagafusa, Hayakawa Nagamasa, and finally to Hosokawa Tadaoki in 1599, upon his move from the 120,000 koku fief of Miyazu, in Tango Province.

Simultaneously, Tadazane's younger brother Ogasawara Tadatomo, who had been a hatamoto, was given Kitsuki Castle in Bungo and its surroundings with a kokudaka of 40,000 koku, making him a daimyō.

As flatland was scarce in Kitsuki, land reclamation and industrial arts were encouraged; Matsudaira Hidechika brought around 100 peasants with him from Mikawa; they formed what became commonly known as the Mikawa-shinden farmland.