Battles had raged for the previous few years between the daimyō of Kyūshū, and by 1585 the
Shimazu family of
Satsuma were the primary power on the island. In 1586, Shimazu clan heard of Hideyoshi's plans for invasion, and lifted their siege of
Tachibana castle, withdrawing a great portion of their forces back to
Higo province, while the rest stayed in
Bungo province. There, they seized
Funai Castle from the
Ōtomo clan and prepared for the invasion. The Ōtomo were supported by armies under
Sengoku Hidehisa,
Sogō Masayasu, and
Chōsokabe Motochika a major Shikoku lord who had been defeated by Hideyoshi the previous year, and had thus joined him. Though Bungo province ultimately fell to the Shimazu, Sengoku and Chōsokabe delayed them and weakened them in preparation for the arrival of Hideyoshi's armies and those of the
Mōri clan under
Kobayakawa Takakage, another ally of Hideyoshi.
Hashiba Hidenaga, half-brother to Hideyoshi, landed to the south of Bungo, attacking the Shimazu at , on Kyūshū's eastern coast, in 1587. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi took his own forces down a more westerly route, attacking in
Chikuzen province, which was held by the
Akizuki clan. Later that year, the two brothers would meet up in the Shimazu's home province of Satsuma, to assault their home castle at
Kagoshima. Ultimately, Kagoshima itself was not attacked; the Shimazu surrendered, leaving Hideyoshi to return his attention to the
Hōjō clan of the
Kantō, the last major clan to oppose him. Hideyoshi would make use of Kyūshū through much of the 1590s in his attacks on Korea. ==Battles of the Kyūshū campaign==