These are liturgies or incantations, words written in a particular script that are then read by the head orator at certain festivals for the deities. In general the classification norito is widely used to include auspicious words (yogoto) as well as language for ritual purification (harae no kotoba). There are various theories regarding the meaning and etymology of the word norito, but the belief that nori is the nominalized form of noru "declare" (announce important words in a mystical way), and to is a suffix, the same as kusoto "crime of spreading feces on things," togohito "cursing (this word is of unclear meaning)," or kotodo "achievements (also a word of unclear derivation)," is close to becoming the scholarly consensus. There is also the idea that the etymology of this word comes from noritabegoto "declare and present words" (Kamo no Mabuchi) or noritokigoto "words declared and expounded" (Motoori Norinaga), but these theories are not seriously considered today. The original form of the word is norito, but later koto "word" was affixed, and in the late Heian period euphony caused the word to be known as notto (norito-koto). In ancient times the word norito was written in various ways such as 祝詞 "prayer-utterances" or 詔戸言 "decree-door-say" (in the first book of Kojiki), 詔刀言 "decree-sword-say" (in the Nakatomi words of celebration), 諄辞 "assist-words" (in Nihon shoki, "age of the kami"), 告刀 "declare-sword" (in Kōtai jingū gishikichō), or 法刀言 "law-sword-say" (in Ryō no shūge). When used as a legal term in the codes of procedures, the spelling was standardized as 祝詞. These characters were used in imitation of Chinese 祝文 "magical words spoken to the gods by a shaman," and changed the character 文 "writings" to 詞 "utterances."

Origins
       The origins of norito are believed to be extremely old, and the fact that magical words were required from ancient times in rituals is seen in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki in the myth of the Heavenly cave (where the Sun goddess hides) when Amenokoyane no mikoto speaks great auspicious words. Also in the scene where Ōkuninushi no mikoto transfers his authority over the land (kuniyuzuri) as seen in Kojiki, auspicious words (words for starting the fire) are used to start the divine fire used to cook food to be presented as divine offerings (shinsen). Norito have been written from ancient times down to the present, and are Shintō classics as well as being the template for writing modern norito, but the main corpus is the twenty-seven norito included in Book Eight of Engishiki, compiled in the twelfth month of 927. These are norito used as various ceremonies and rituals at the court that have been read and handed down, and are called Engishiki norito or Engi norito shiki. First there are the customary rituals held at court, and these norito are listed in order of their execution: 1) Toshigoi no matsuri (Toshigoi festival), 2) Kasuga festival, 3) The Hirose great taboo festival, 4) Tatsuta wind deity festival, 5) Hirano festival, 6) Festival for the deities Kudo and Furuseki, 7) Monthly festival of the sixth month, 8) Ōtono hokai (Great palace festival), 9) August palace gates festival, 10) Great purification on the last day of the sixth month, 11) Mystical words when the Yamato Fumi Imiki presented the sword, 12) Hishizume no matsuri (Pacifying the fire festival), 13) Banquet of the roads, 14) Great new food festival (Ōnie no matsuri ), 15) Festival of the pacification of the imperial spirit. Next norito particular to the Ise Shrines were compiled in order of discharge: 16) Rituals for use at the Toshigoi festival in the second month and the Tsukinami festival in the sixth and twelfth months, 17) the festival at the Toyouke Shrine, 18) Ritual for the festival of the robe deity of the fourth month, 19) Tsukinami festival of the sixth and twelfth months, 20) Festival of the first fruits to the deities in the ninth month, 21) Same festival for the Toyouke Shrine, 22) Same festival of the first fruits to the deities, 23) Ritual when the consecrated imperial princess first enters the Ise Shrine, 24) Ritual words for the removal of the shrine of the great deity. These are the regular, yearly rituals listed in order. After these a few special or extraordinary rituals are listed: 25) Ritual to dispel a malevolent deity (tatarigami ), 26) Presentation of offerings at the time of dispatching an envoy to China, 27) Laudatory words to the deity offered by the local chieftain of Izumo (Izumo kuni no miyatsuko).
       It is believed that these liturgies are preserved largely unchanged in their original form, found in the sixth book of Kōnin shiki, compiled in the fourth month of 820. Numbers 1, 7, 14 are liturgies offered in prayer for the longevity of the emperor's reign, and a prosperous harvest of the five grains. Numbers 8 and 9 are liturgies offered in prayer for the tranquility of the emperor's palace, while 10 is the great purification that was offered twice a year to expiate transgressions and disasters in the realm under heaven. Those splendid compositions were, along with the "age of the kami" section of Nihon shoki, viewed as divine by later generations, and as the most important Shintō texts in the creation of Shintō thought. In the medieval period these words were often recited by geomancers (onmyōji, or yin-yang diviners), people at shrines, and even common individuals, and these are still read even down to the present. Number 27 varies from regular norito. The new governor of Izumo (Izumo no kuni no miyatsuko) practiced abstinence (kessai ) for a year's time while worshipping the deities of Izumo, and then went to the capital where he presented the jinpō (divine treasures) and the first fruits. The emperor received these and these offerings were offered through a liturgy for the longevity of the imperial reign. The words of this liturgy are a show of allegiance by Izumo, and this is a celebrated example of the ultimate development of celebratory or auspicious words (yogoto).
       There are also other norito not found in the Norito shiki that are historically important, such as Nakatomi auspicious words recited on the day the emperor ascended the throne (sokui ) as well as the great festival of the tasting of the first fruits (daijōsai, the norito is called amatsukami no yogoto, or "auspicious words for the heavenly deity"). The texts of these liturgies are contained in Taiki bekki, the journal of Fujiwara Yorinaga (1120-1156), under the entry for the first year of Emperor Konoe (1142), as words presented by Ōnakatomi Kiyochika. There is also the text recited by Ōnakatomi Chikasada in the first year of Emperor Toba (1108), an emperor two reigns previous to Konoe (contained in Nishida Nagao's Shintō-shi no kenkyū , volume 2 where he introduces a text copied by suppliant priest [negi ] of the Ise Shrine, Arakida Moritoki, copied during the years 1506-1516). There is also a text, Nakatomi hissho copied in 1401 by someone in the Fujinami family, descendants of the Ōnakatomi, the text of which can be found in Komatsu Kaoru's "Shin hakken no Fujinamike shozō: Nakatomi hissho (tenjin yogoto) no shōkai to kōsatsu" (Newly Discovered Documents of the Fujinami Family: An Introduction to and Consideration of the 'Nakatomi hissho tenjin yogoto' ). Furthermore, in the sixteenth volume of Engishiki under the Office of Yin-Yang Divination in the entry "Items for the Na Festival" there is a text (saimon) of words recited for a festival by geomancers (onmyōji ) at the Na Festival on the last day of the twelfth month.
       There is some chronological breadth to the composition of the norito in Engishiki, and it is also believed that certain liturgies like 1), 7), and 10), have passed through several stages to reach their present states. On the other hand, some liturgies such as 3) and 4) first appear in festivals in 675, and 27) was first presented in 716, and the place names found in these laudatory words reflect the eras of the Asuka and Fujiwara Capitals. By gathering clues such as these, and comparing that with evidence such as 2) where the festival of this shrine was established in 768, or 5) and 6) where these festivals were founded in the Enryaku era (782—806), we can estimate when these liturgies were put together. There are also some who argue that the use of words like amatsu yashiro, kunitsu yashiro "shrine of heaven, shrine of the land" as found in 1), 4), 7), 14), and in the Nakatomi yogoto originate from the Ōmi Code which was in force from 671 to 689.
Regarding the presenter of these norito, in the myths contained in Kojiki and Nihon shoki and Kogo shūi there is the tradition that Futodama, the founding deity (sojin) of the Inbe, was in charge of offerings, and Amenokoyane, the founding deity of the Nakatomi, was in charge of reciting the liturgies (though some traditions state that Futodama also was in charge of recitation). In the Jingiryō it notes that precedent is set where the Nakatomi recite liturgies at the Kinensai and Tsukinamisai, and the Inbe should be in charge of preparing the paper offerings. The opening words of the liturgies in Engi norito shiki states that of these liturgies the Inbe are to recite words at the Ōtonosai and Mikadosai, while the Nakatomi are in charge of recitation at the rest (naturally the Nakatomi do not read anything for 11) and 27). Also, because the Nakatomi were primarily in charge of recitation of the Ōharae no kotoba, this later was called Nakatomi no harae.

Style and contents
       If we categorize the style of these Engishiki liturgies by how each ends, we come up with two large divisions: there are those liturgies that end with words like "I announce: 'Give ear everyone to these words'"; "I announce that I end the presentation of these words of praise"; the other group ends with the words such as "I humbly say that this is the end of the presentation of these words of praise"; "I humbly say the presentation of these words". The former take the form of a public pronouncement to people gathered together at the place of a festival, and this is called senmyō (senge)-tai norito (edict style norito), while the latter is called presentation style norito, because these are presented directly to the kami.
       There is a general model regarding the composition of these liturgies where the name of the deity being worshipped (saijin) is announced, or the origin of the festival is explained according to myth, and then the divine virtues of the deity (shintoku) are praised, the offerings of food (shinsen) and paper offerings are presented, and then the purpose of the liturgy is announced. Liturgies that are comparatively recent lack the beginning section about mythic origins. Even in the simplistic style of expression there still are metaphors, enumerations, and reiterations, as well as rhetorical devices such as antonyms and antitheses; these virtuous words and beautiful phrases epitomize cordiality and respect, lending a solemn air to the recitation.
       The orthographic method employed is completely in Chinese characters in order to avoid any errors in recitation at a solemn occasion such as a ritual festival, but the characters have been placed according to the word order of Japanese, with mainly nouns and pronouns as well as the stems of verbs and adjectival verbs written in Chinese characters in a large size, while suffixes and particles as well as the inflecting parts of verbs are written in man'yōgana in a smaller size. In other words, these are written in the senmyō style. The orthography was used in ancient times because it was more marked and more precise for recitation compared to classical Chinese or Japanese-modified Chinese. Even after the general Japanese orthography had changed to a mixture of kanji and kana, the orthography of the liturgies still preserved the tradition of writing in the senmyō style. The paper these liturgies were written on was white washi (Japanese style paper), like torinokogami (Japanese vellum), hōshogami (a stout white paper), and sugiharagami (a lighter, thinner paper), and the paper was then folded generally in seven and one half folds. The paper used for imperial edicts that were presented to imperial shrines, shrines, and imperial tumuli by imperial messengers (chokushi ) even down to the present is Ise light blue paper and Kamo crimson paper, as determined in Engishiki, while other edicts are written down on yellow paper.

Transitions and research
       After the compilation of the Engishiki norito there have been various compilations of liturgies recited at specific shrines, especially in the middle ages, such as "Nenjū gyōji norito fumi (Kōtai jingū ) [Texts of liturgies recited at yearly events [Ise Shrine]," "Notsuto shidai " (Wakasa Hiko jinja), "Sumiyoshi Daijingū norito," "Hiesha norito kudensho." There are also norito recorded in Suwasha nennai shidai kyūki . In other records where fragments of norito are contained, we should mention the "Miyanome saimon" fragment found in Shūkaisho and Shissei shoshō , as well as various liturgies from the Ise Shrines, Kamo, Iwashimizu, Hirano, Gion, Kitano, Kasuga and other shrines, known from works like Kōtai jingū nenjū gyōji, Taiki, Shōyūki, Chūshishō, Ruijū daibunin, Azuma kagami, Chōya gunsai, Kanchūki, Entairyaku, Yasutomiki, and Honchō seiki. Some of these medieval liturgies were simplified over time and became formalized, while others had Chinese and Buddhist terminology added. Also, while the Engishiki liturgies were recited from the point of view of the Jingikan (Bureau of Divinities), we can view these later liturgies as the words that were actually recited for common people at festivals of various shrines. Even though we refer collectively to "norito" with one word, these liturgies have undergone historical transformations, which is clear in the provinces where there is a variety of types. It was kokugaku (National Learning) that sought to revive the older liturgies because of these diverse kind of norito they found. Due of kokugaku scholars, the entire section of Engishiki norito became the object of study, and research on norito underwent epochal progress. The court, various shrines, and numerous households began writing liturgies based on the old precedent. Norito from the Meiji era on have been written in the spirit of this restoration-oriented kokugaku.
       Among the extant ancient manuscripts of Book Eight of Engishiki, the Kujōke manuscript is recognized as the oldest surviving text, having been copied near the end of the Heian period. This manuscript does not contain any interpolations, and the interlinear readings preserve the ancient style of kana. Next is the Urabe Kanenaga text from the Muromachi period, copied in 1523, which preserves an even older state than the Kujōke manuscript regarding the use of man'yōgana. The Urabe Kanemigi text, copied in 1542, is a manuscript that is separate from the Kanenaga. Regarding research on norito, Shintō scholars from the Kamakura period on put together commentaries on the great purification liturgy, and this is contained in the three-volume work Ōharae kotoba chūshaku taisei. Commentaries on all the liturgies began with Kamo no Mabuchi's Engishiki norito kai, which built upon the foundation of research conducted by Kada no Azumamaro and Kada no Arimaro. Mabuchi also put together a standard reference titled Norito kō . After this Motoori Norinaga wrote Izumo no miyatsuko no kamuyogoto goshaku and Ōharae no kotoba kōshaku, and Suzuki Shigetane compiled Engishiki norito kōgi.