[6] The earliest evidence of the current title dates to October 1888, when the songs was first formally published by Tenrikyo as "御かぐら歌.

"[7] However, since the kanji character 御 could potentially be read either as "O" and "On" in addition to "Mi,"[5] it still cannot be said with absolute certainty when “Mikagura-uta” became the standard title (in the past it was referred to sometimes as "Okagura-uta").

[8] The first time the title of the Mikagura-uta took its current written form (only in hiragana) was in 1928, when the scripture was distributed to all churches to commemorate Shozen Nakayama’s marriage.

Nakayama Miki has been said to describe the nature of the counting song as "like children playing shuttlecock during the New Year's season, singing 'One, Two.

[14] Tenrikyo scholar Ueda Yoshinaru (上田嘉成) has suggested themes for each song: One of the first recorded instances of performing the Mikagura-uta in public can be found in Shinmei Ashizu no Michi ("The History of Shinmei Ashizu Fellowship"): "Some 30 to 50 followers gathered to do the Service of the Twelve Songs, the Teodori, every night at the fellowship in Honden (Osaka).

They made strenuous efforts in holding lessons until dawn...When members went to the house of a sick person to pray, they gathered with the musical instruments for the service.

"[26]Another account by Masui Rin, who attended to Nakayama Miki towards the end of her life, goes: "We made a 'three-day and three-night prayer' to God to save a person.

"[27]The Mikagura-uta has been translated into English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Tagalog, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese (traditional), and Korean.