－Kobo-Daishi "Twice to China Theory"－ ■　Limitations of Humans Cast Adrift on the Sea　■ 　The third question is Daishi' emergence in Japan and social responses to him. 　In modern times, it is quite common that if someone becomes an extremely high profile figure, acquaintances in his/her early days write something to record their memories. 　The transformation of Kobo-Daishi from an obscure youth to a celebrity comparable to Saicho took place after only a two-year study in China. 　People who studied with Kobo-Daishi side by side in a temple in Nara or other places a few years before should have witnessed the incredible success of Kobo-Daishi immediately after his return to Japan. However, no episodes of Kobo-Daishi written by these people are left to date. A straight-forward but effective approach to reasoning for the lack of such episodes is to accept the simple fact as is. That is, the lack of such episodes implies Kobo-Daishi's sudden appearance in the Japanese religious scene. A further question is Kobo-Daishi's linguistic capability in Chinese. The No. 1 ship carrying Kobo-Daishi and his fellow passengers met a heavy storm and drifted ashore in the province of Fujian, far away from the original destination along the Yangzi River. The administrative inspector for the province did not permit the passengers to embark and issued an order to "seal the ship, drive the individuals who landed to the shore and let them stay on the wet sand." To remedy the situation, Kobo-Daishi was asked to write a "letter on behalf of the Ambassador addressed to the Fujian Administrative Inspector." Shoryoshu contains the letter written by Kobo-Daishi then.According to this letter, the party of Kobo-Daishi drifted at sea for about two months. Considering exaggerations common in those days, the drifting probably lasted about a month. 　What would happen to a modern human if he/she drifts at sea as Kobo-Daishi did? 　There is a written record that a rice transporting ship called "Tokujo-maru" in Owari (currently Nagoya) was cast adrift for as long as seventeen months in the tenth year of Bunka during the Edo era. According to this record, on the fourth day after beginning to drift, all thirteen crew members decided to kill themselves due to overwhelming anxiety and the captain barely managed to persuade them away from it. Within a few months thereafter, ten out of thirteen crewmen died one after another from disease or mental aberration. Alain Bombard, a French doctor, wrote in his book titled "Naufrage Volontaire," that what takes the lives of castaways is not the sea, but "anxiety and fear." Bombard sailed across the Atlantic in a five-meter long boat in order to find ways to save the lives of people on wrecked ships. He did not bring drinking water to simulate a disaster. He survived the 113-day drift experiment by feeding on fish caught from the sea and drinking plankton and seawater. The record of experimental voyaging became and is still the Bible for rescue of maritime casualties. Since ancient times, many Japanese safely returned to Japan after drifting at sea, and recently as well, news of survival from marine disasters is often reported. One thing common to these experiences is that most crewmen fell into a state of lethargy, both physically and mentally, when the drifting continued more than one month. 　None of the conventional biographies of Kobo-Daishi paid attention to the health condition of all the crewmen and passengers after drifting at sea for one month. However, as stated above, an experience of drifting at sea for one month is often severe enough to cause mental abnormalities. If the drifting lasted two months as Shoryoshu stated, it can easily be imagined that the entire ship was under a state of calamity. 　This should be kept in mind when considering the circumstances behind the fact that Kobo-Daishi wrote a letter to the Fujian Administrative Inspector in place of the Japanese Ambassador to Tang, Fujiwara-no-Kadonomaro. 　The theories published in the past assert that a decision was made to have Kobo-Daishi write a letter after the failure of the ambassador's repeated attempt to convince the Chinese side. Actually, it would be more reasonable to consider that the ambassador was not in the physical and mental condition to negotiate with the Chinese officials. In this respect, the authors of the conventional biographical books on Kobo-Daishi wrote that the Kentoshi party leaped into negotiation immediately after arrival, as if like a country lobby group that goes straight from the Shinkansen Tokyo Station to a government office for lobbying. Shoddy imagination, indeed. As various records of drifting demonstrate, it is the human physiology that, after drifting at sea for over a month, one would never be able to be in the condition capable of negotiation. Clear evidences for this can be found in the medical report by Bombard and various other records of drifting. 　Ambassador Fujiwara-no-Kadonomaro was a statesman authorized to act on behalf of Japan, and should have had the ability to account for his mission to the Chinese, if in normal condition. In ignoring this point, the authors of the biographies seem to be rather over-sympathizing with Kobo-Daishi. 　These authors explained that Kobo-Daishi was eventually assigned to the negotiation because the ambassador depended on Kobo-Daishi for his superb linguistic and writing skills. The reality was, I believe, that Kobo-Daishi, an obscure young monk who suddenly came on board immediately before departure, was the only person who was healthy in body and in mind at that time; the rest of the people on board were physically and mentally lethargic, or almost unconscious. 　Here arises a question: Why was Kobo-Daishi alone able to be in good condition after drifting for many days? One promising hypothesis is that he was a repeat traveler? What if this was the third round trip to and from the continent for Kobo-Daishi? If so, his body and mind must have responded completely differently from that of the ambassador, who was at the mercy of the rough sea for the first time in his life.