There is a historical material about that period describing that these appearances to be distinguished from normal people were because they were hinin (one group comprising the lowest rank in the Japanese society, often ex-convicts or vagrants) and did not avoid taboos, so it can be understood that they were assumed as hinin.
これらの常民と区別される外見については、非人のため禁忌を憚らないためであるとする同時代史料があり、非人と見なされていたことが分かる。