Oita, city, Japan, northeastern Kyushu Island, capital of Oita Prefecture, a port on Beppu Bay. It is a manufacturing center noted for livestock and raw silk. From the 13th century Oita was the seat of the Otomo daimyos, the most powerful of the Kyushu lords. It was at Oita, formerly called Funai, that the Portuguese navigator Fernão Mendes Pinto landed in 1543 and introduced firearms to the Japanese. The Jesuits established a mission at Oita soon after. Population 432,100 (1999).
