Born the eldest son of Ōtomo Yoshiaki, military governor of Bungo (Ōita). His name was Yoshishige; Sōrin was the name he took later as a lay monk.
His father, trying to make a younger son heir, clashed with retainers and was killed by them (the Nikai-kuzure Incident). Yoshishige became head of the house.
He invited Francis Xavier to Funai (Ōita) and permitted Christian preaching. Portuguese ships came, and Funai prospered on the Nanban trade.
The missionary Almeida opened a hospital in Funai, offering Western medical treatment, and Sōrin protected such work.
He became military governor of Buzen, Chikuzen and other northern provinces and was named Kyushu deputy by the shogunate; the Ōtomo reached their peak.
He took the tonsure as Sōrin and continued to contest northern Kyushu with the Mōri.
He was baptized as Dom Francisco. That year he invaded Hyūga but was crushed by the Shimazu at the Mimikawa, losing many retainers; the Ōtomo began to decline.
With Arima Harunobu and Ōmura Sumitada he sent four boys, including Itō Mancio, to the Pope in Rome (the Tenshō embassy).
Hard pressed by the Shimazu, he visited Toyotomi Hideyoshi at Osaka castle to beg for help—one trigger of Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign.
Around the time the Shimazu surrendered to Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign, he died of illness at Tsukumi in Bungo.
Francis XavierŌmura SumitadaToyotomi HideyoshiItō MancioShimazu YoshihisaShimazu YoshihiroToyotomi HidenagaRyuzoji Takanobu
Sakai TadatsuguAkechi MitsuhideRyuzoji TakanobuUesugi KenshinKikkawa MotoharuLuís FróisKobayakawa TakakageAsakura Yoshikage
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.