According to the genealogy of the San'yō lineage, nenbutsu practice was brought from Ryūkyū in 1657 when Yaeyama's samurai leader Miyara Chōjū traveled to Okinawa to pay tribute.
It is known from other sources that by that time nenbutsu practice had spread to the capital Shuri–Naha region of Okinawa Island.
One was started in the 1600s by Taichū (1552–1639), a Jōdo sect monk from Mutsu Province, and was carried on by his followers in Kakinohana, Naha.
In the samurai communities of Ishigaki, a group of people with drums (taiko) and sanshin parades around houses of each village.
Once everyone sits, Uya nu Ugun (親の御恩, or Nzō Nenbutsu 無蔵念仏) was sung to mark the beginning, and dancers clap with the beat.
In the center people sing and play drums, flutes, gongs and sanshin, depending on regional variants, and they are surrounded by male and female dancers.