[1] In response to this request, Nakayama Shinnosuke, the first Shinbashira, supervised the composition of the script for the Besseki lectures, which was completed in 1896.

Nakayama Shinnosuke's hiragana version became the basis of future biography compilations including The Life of Oyasama.

[2] In 1891, Hashimoto Kiyoshi wrote Tenrikyōkai yurai ryakki (天理教会由来略記), which was written to be submitted to groups outside the church.

[2] Around this time Tenrikyo followers such as Okutani Bunchi and Masuno Michioki independently wrote biographies as well.

[4] In 1952, a group of scholars of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters known as the "Kōki Committee" began to prepare a number of drafts of Oyasama's biography.

The biography is labeled as a "manuscript edition" (稿本, kōhon) because further revisions may be made to the text in the future as more research is done.