Going beyond time and space might be a fitting expression. There is a flow of time that exists only in the Kunisaki Peninsula. Here, you’ll find rice paddies unchanged since the Heian era, Buddhist temples and statues surrounded by lore, and a Showa-era town with both the old and the new. People dwell amid the flow of time of Rokugou-Manzan.

Usa Jingu Shrine is mysterious. Why is this shrine, which serves as the head shrine of all Hachimangu shrines nationwide, located in Usa? How did it achieve syncretism of Shintoism and Buddhism and why has it been able to exert such an enormous influence on Japanese culture? Beyond this “why” are the roots of Oita culture.

This castle town inspires awe. Imagine the people who walked these steep stone steps stretching beneath Kitsuki Castle, lined with samurai residences and old townhouses. And what scenes spread before Francis Xavier, the missionary who introduced Christianity to Japan at the end of the 16th century, as he walked beneath Hiji Castle?

Hot springs have created the culture here: Beppu Hattou (the eight hot springs of Beppu), with the largest hot water yield in Japan; Yufuin, which has become one of the premier resort destinations in the country with its unique townscaping; and Yunohira, with its cobblestone slopes. From healthcare and welfare to sightseeing and tourism, this is the feeling that comes over you as you gaze out over this hot spring resort area.

Here, there is Hita, an imperial land during the Edo period. Here, there is Onta, where the sound of pestle and mortar echo throughout the mountains. Here, there is Taio, once Japan’s premier producer of gold. Here, there are the Kuju Mountains, which continue to attract mountain climbers from all over. Here, in the mountains, basins, and meadows, there is diverse nature, landscapes, and lives.

“It’s all wilderness. Thus, it shall be named Ono (big wilderness) District." This was written of the Houhi area in the Bungo no Kuni Fudoki (“Report on the Culture of Bungo Province”) (8th century). Go up the Ono River to find a lush countryside dotted with stone bridges and stone Buddhas. Culture built upon cultivating the vast land spreads before you.

Kennan has the seas, rivers and mountains. The Bungo Channel connecting to the Pacific and the many shores of the fluctuating rias coast is home to many ports and many lives. Go up the river from the seashore toward the mountains to reach a laurel forest, arguably an original landscape of the Japanese archipelago.

“Funay” at the center of Kyushu, which was written as “Bungo” on an old Portuguese map at the end of the 16th century, is none other than the present-day City of Oita. This “Southern City” is the birthplace of Western theater, music, and medicine in Japan. There is a history built up by the people since the age of the feudal lord Sourin Otomo.