The village-level ritual prayers in the Ryukyu Islands have been performed by the female priests called Noro or Nigami. Most research about the priestess on this island had been focused on their roles, tenures, and selection processes. And also, facts and connection between priest and priestess have not been investigated because the priestesses have treated as symbolic roles. In this paper, as a stepping stone to clarify the actual situations of the priests in Okinawa, comprehensive investigation about the village-level ritual prayers has been made in the northern part of the island. In addition, the results has been analyzed their universality and distinctiveness, and the role of the male priests. The regional differences are also examined. As a result of the analysis, the priests are divided into seven categories,（1）public female priestess,（2）female priestess,（3）male priest,（4）female priestess from private citizens,（5）relatives from venerable family,（6）village officials（7）village citizens. In addition, it can be classified into 8 types:（1）,（2）,（2）＋（3）,（4）,（5）,（6）,（6）＋（7）,（7）. In most cases（mid 80％）are the village priests（1）,（2）,（3）. The most of village priests（4）,（5）,（6）are from relatively newly founded villages which are originated from samurai class antecedents or divided from the old villages. Firstly,（1）public female priestess has been found in the north part of 30 to 40％,（2）female priestess was found in 80-90％. There was no regional difference. This is an important achievement in understanding the placement criteria of （1） by the royal government. Therefore, the periphery propagation theory for this result is not an effective methodology. Secondly, all 42 cases of（3）male priests are exist as pairs of（2）female priestess. Their role names, Shidu and Shidugami are not common names but there are many other variations. The cases of（2）female priestess in the north are distinctively more than the south. The regional difference is positive and the Periphery Propagation Theory is an effective methodology. Therefore, this result provides the clues of historical transition. There are two possible reasons can be stated. One possible reason is that there were male priests as an originated style in the north part from ancient times, the other was there were a lot of male priests on the north side of the north part. Accordingly, the first possibility is reasonable focusing only on the island of Okinawa. However, considering entire the Ryukyu Islands including Sakishima, the southern part of islands, there are seldom male priests. Thus, peripheral propagation theory is not applied as distant coincidence is not completed. A further analysis should be conducted in the south-central Okinawa Island and the Amami Islands in order to clarify the facts.
