The Otomo clan exercised authority as an organizer of gokenin shu (group of immediate vassals of the shogunate in the Kamakura and Muromachi through Edo periods) in the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) from the Kamakura period to the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan) together with the Shoni clan and the Shimazu clan.
大友氏は鎌倉時代から南北朝時代(日本)にかけて少弐氏・島津氏とともに幕府御家人衆の束ね役として権勢を振るった。