I believe that's how executioners were treated in the middle ages in Europe, too - almost magical in a sense, because they dealt with the 'taboo' of human death, but were social pariahs and shunned in a sort of terrified respect.
Couldn't marry outside their station, everyone treated them like an infectious disease, but they had great pay, job security in the generational sense, and were forced to live outside of town and struggled to purchase goods on account of even their money considered dirty by way of physical proximity.
Just interesting to see a Japanese comic about magical healing go so far to get the details historically grounded. Between that and the medical jargon, the author really seems to have done their research.