This paper investigates the historical formation and sociocultural positioning of blind musicians in China and Japan, challenging explanations that foreground sensory compensation in favor of a nuanced social perception of divinity—as well as functions of music that come along with that perception—as central to their musicality and musicianship. This study demonstrates that in East Asia, since at least the sixth century BCE in China and the eighth century CE in Japan, it was the belief in the sacred and supernatural attributes of the blind body that defined blind musicians’ social roles. Drawing on archival, textual, and ethnographic sources, I trace how visually impaired musicians—such as Shaanbei blind bards and Japanese biwa performers—have been alternately revered as ritual specialists with shamanic or Buddhist associations and stigmatized as beggars or socially marginal figures. Through a comparative lens informed by concepts of specialism, professionalism, and social status, this study reveals how perceptions of divinity shaped social understandings of blindness and embodied musical expertise in the two countries. This analysis extends to transformations in the twentieth century, including modernization, state intervention, and cultural heritage policies that recast blind musicians’ roles in nation-building and community preservation. By foregrounding the interplay of religious imaginaries, disability, and musical labor, the paper contributes to broader ethnomusicological conversations about historical and sociopolitical constructions of musicianship and disabilities.