It was the first chronography compiled by the royal government and was presented to King Shō Kei in 1713.
Later Tei Heitetsu (鄭秉哲) wrote its Kanbun translated version and titled it Ryūkyū-koku kyū-ki (琉球国旧記).
In addition, the “Preface to the Records of the Origin of Various Matters” describes the purpose of the book.
The same commentary also states that ‘this book should also be called the Engishiki (延喜式, "Procedures of the Engi Era") of the Ryukyu Islands.’ At the end of the “Preface to the Records of the Origin of Various Matters”, the following persons are listed as having been involved in the compilation of the book.
11: Record of Miraculous Events (霊異記 Reiiki), Clans Origins (氏文 Ujibumi) and Dependent arising (縁起 Engi)”,[2] it is considered that the prime minister and the council of three, as the persons taking responsibility for the royal government, were only supervisors mentioned for administrative purposes, and that the actual research had been carried out by the Origins of the Old Rules Magistrates.
In the same book, it is said that the period of creation of the post of “Origins of the Old Rules Magistrate” is made quite clear by the mention in the genealogic records of the Sanshikan Tashima Chōyū of the creation of the “Old Records Office” on the 2nd day of the 3rd month of the lunar calendar of 1703 (Kangxi 42).
The same book also speculates that the Old Records Office became independent from the Genealogical Records Office (that had been established in 1689 (Kangxi 28)) shortly after the completion of the Genealogy Book of Chūzan (Chūzan Seifu, 中山世譜).
The same book (“Commentary on the Ryūkyū-koku yurai-ki”) states that for the various rituals of each place mentioned in the Ryūkyū-koku yurai-ki, instructions were sent to each Magiri Banjo (Guard House) [1] for the local magistrates to research and document the origins of the old rituals in their jurisdiction.
In addition, there are mentions of the “Visible Ways of the Gods Account” (見神道記) in the chapters “Ameku Temple’s Great Gongen’s Origin” (天久山大権現縁起) and “Futenma Temple’s Three Location Great Gongen’s Origin” (普天満山三所大権現縁起) of the 11th volume of the Ryūkyū-koku yurai-ki (titled “Secret Origins of Various Temples”密門諸寺縁起 [3]), implying that several paragraphs of this volume referred to the Ryūkyū Shintō-ki (琉球神道記 “An account of the ways of the gods in Ryūkyū”), suggesting that the Ryūkyū Shintō-ki was used as a reference work when this volume was compiled.