¶ … Mimi-nashi-hoichi is interesting in many different ways, but its most fascinating context lies in that which the West may call 'insanity' and, accordingly, penalize, whilst the Orient, seeing the same condition, rewards it and accords it fame. Mimi-nashi-hoichi is the Shinto sacred narrative of a man who was visited by an august assembly and ordered to play for them his bewitching composition of the battle of Dan-no-ura. Night after night he did so refusing to reveal his mission to others as demanded by his listeners. One day, the priest and others who hosted him elicited the story out of him when they discovered him sitting in the cemetery and playing to the dead, "and behind him, and about him, and everywhere above the tombs, the fires of the dead were burning, like candles." Alarmed that the dead bewitched him, the priest and the acolyte covered him with protective amulets:

with their writing-brushes, they traced upon his breast and back, head and face and neck, limbs and hands...

When the priest saw him the next day, he realized that he had covered all but forgot the ears. Hoichi received medical care and recovered. He became famous as a result of his adventures and received the appellation of Mimi-nashi-Hoichi: "Hoichi-the-Earless." Noble people visited Akamagaseki to hear his wonders.
Most intriguing about this incident is the Asian response to Hoichi's incident. A Western contemporary may likely have been disturbed by the whole incident, felt threatened by Hoichi's hallucinatory (they would have called it) experiences, and compelled him to receive medical aid. At worst, they would have institutionalized him. The Asian society rewarded him.

The Concise Medical Dictionary declares that insanity…