It is said Shinobu ORIKUCHI used this term first, along with other terms such as "okishiro" and "shimeyama" (a mountain or place targeted by gods), in his paper titled 'Higeko no hanashi' (a Story of the Beard-box) published in the magazine "Kyodo-Kenkyu" (Hometown Research) in April, 1915, (it is also said that Kunio YANAGIDA hardly used the word because it was coined by ORIKUCHI).
折口信夫が1915年4月に雑誌『郷土研究』に掲載した論文「髯籠の話」の中で招代・標山とともに初めて用いたとされている（なお、柳田国男は依り代を折口の造語としてほとんど用いなかったと言われている）。