Purification as Public Rite, Not Private Confession

Like the Great Purification Prayer, this norito addresses impurity affecting the wider community or realm rather than the private moral failing of a single individual, reflecting Shinto's characteristic treatment of kegare as a kind of accumulated ritual pollution requiring periodic communal removal regardless of individual intention or specific wrongdoing, a concept scholars of comparative religion routinely contrast with confession-based penitential prayer traditions built around personal moral guilt requiring individual acknowledgment and forgiveness. The historical oharae ceremonies at which texts of this kind were recited were performed by court ritual specialists on behalf of the realm as a whole, a communal and institutional rather than individual and voluntary religious act, distinguishing this norito's original context sharply from prayers of personal petition or confession found in traditions organized around individual devotional practice.

Contemporary Shinto shrines continue purification rituals, harae, drawing on this broader ritual tradition, performed for individuals, families, businesses and communities seeking removal of accumulated impurity or bad fortune, though the specific ancient court norito preserved in the Engishiki is now primarily of historical and scholarly interest rather than in regular verbatim liturgical use, with contemporary shrine purification rites typically employing related but not identical modern norito composed by shrine priests for the specific occasion at hand.