The Nakatomi Purification Prayer has been carried across the centuries through a layered interplay of oral recitation, written codification, and ritual practice. In its earliest setting, it was entrusted to hereditary ritual specialists of the imperial court, who preserved both the words and the precise manner of their recitation. Over time, this living oral tradition was reinforced by written transmission, most notably through its inclusion in the Engishiki, a classical compilation of court ceremonies and regulations that stabilized its wording and ritual context. This dual mode of preservation—voice and text—allowed the prayer to remain both a living utterance and a carefully guarded liturgical formula.

As Shinto ritual life spread and diversified, shrine networks adopted the prayer within their own purification rites, maintaining its core intent while allowing regional ritual lineages to carry it forward. Throughout these developments, the prayer remained anchored in liturgical practice: recited at shrines, integrated into major ceremonies, and used in purification contexts such as misogi and seasonal rites. Even when the prominence of Shinto waned at certain historical moments, the prayer itself was not entirely lost; rather, its frequency and visibility shifted in response to broader religious and political currents.

A significant phase of revival and rearticulation occurred with the deliberate reordering of Shinto ritual in the modern era, when efforts were made to systematize and elevate ancient forms. During this period, the Nakatomi Purification Prayer was consciously studied, standardized, and re-employed as a model of classical Shinto liturgy, drawing on earlier textual witnesses like the Engishiki. Scholarly attention to its language and structure helped reaffirm its status as a central expression of purification, even as shorter or simplified prayers came into common use alongside it.

In the present ritual landscape, the prayer endures through the institutional life of Shinto. Organizations overseeing shrine practice maintain it through formal priestly training, regular ceremonial performance, and academic study and publication. Through these channels, the prayer is not merely archived but continually re-embodied in sound and gesture, allowing it to function as a bridge between ancient court ritual and contemporary shrine worship. Its preservation thus reflects a dynamic continuity: a text stabilized in writing yet kept spiritually alive through ongoing recitation, instruction, and ritual enactment.