The first Hojoe ritual is thought to have been that held at Usa-jingu Shrine in 720 as a reparation for the deeds that took the lives of numerous soldiers in the conflicts up to that time (it is written in the history of Usa-jingu Shrine that this was conducted as a ritual to repose the souls of the Hayato people who were massacred by the Yamato Sovereignty during the subjugation of Kyushu).
720年（養老4年）それまでの戦において多くの兵の命を奪った罪への禊ぎとして宇佐神宮で行なわれたのが放生会の最初とされる（宇佐神宮の縁起にはヤマト王権が九州平定の際に隼人を殺戮したことへの鎮魂儀式であると記されている）。