Furthermore, the "Nihon Ryoiki" includes many narratives about lay priests known as shido-so (individuals calling themselves priests without gaining approval from the provincial authorities), and Kyokai himself had a wife and children and owned a horse, thus living a life as part layman and part priest, and therefore, one theory has it that at some later stage as a shido-so he entered the Buddhist priesthood.
また霊異記には私度僧（国の許可を得ず僧を称したもの）の説話が多いことや彼自身も妻子や馬を持つなど半僧半俗の生活を営んでいたことから、私度僧もしくはある時期までは私度僧で遅くに得度を受けたとする説が出されている。