The Japanese medieval epic the Tale of the Heike and the Pillow Book (by Sei Shonagon) have traditionally been praised for the fact that they represent a high literary value. There is even more to the literary masterpieces in question – they contain many in-depth insights into what were the discursive predispositions for Japanese society to become what it is now. The reason for this is that while exposed to the mentioned epic and book, readers will learn a great deal about the workings of one’s ‘Oriental’ mentality, in general, and this mentality’s gender-based psychological extrapolations, in particular. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while outlining what clues about male and female ideals of medieval Japan can be inferred from the literary works in question. It will be thoroughly logical, on our part, to use the Tale of the Heike as the source of analytical acumens, as to how men in medieval Japan used to perceive the surrounding social reality and their place in it. The reason for this has to do with the fact that the concerned epic was written by Buddhist monks (males) over a long period and also the fact that the Tale of the Heike can be seen epitomic of the so-called ‘masculine’ (patriarchal) virtues, reflective of their affiliates’ obsession with trying to impose their dominance on others, as something that has the value of a ‘thing in itself’, as well as of the sheer strength of these people’s fatalistic attitudes towards life (and death). One of the most notable things that come into one’s sight in this respect is that the epic’s semantic content is strongly affected by the motif of ‘impermanence’ – something that endows this literary work with the unmistakably Buddhist sounding. As one of the epic’s anonymous authors pointed out: “The blossoms of the sale tree teach us through their hues that what flourishes must fade” (“The Tales of the Heike” 1289). In its turn, this partially explains why most male characters in the epic are described trying to maintain a stoic posture, even when facing certain death. After all, when assessed through the theological lenses of Buddhism, death is certainly not the end. And, it is namely a man’s willingness to adhere to the behavioral provisions of ‘masculine virtuousness’, which according to the Buddhist monks who wrote the Tale of the Heike qualifies him to be allowed to enter ‘Amida’s Pure Land’ after he dies. The foremost of these provisions is concerned with requiring samurai warriors to never cease remaining loyal to their overlord. The scene in which the members of Minister Munemori’s entourage refuse to leave their master and to try saving their own lives is quite illustrative in this respect: “We are fighting men…. Therefore, wherever the ruler may go, be it… to the end of the clouds or the end of the sea, we will never cease to attend him!” (“The Tales of the Heike” 1297). Apparently, this particular scene in the epic points out to the fact that there were indeed many objective prerequisites for the famous Bushido code (concerned with samurai ethics) to originate in no other country but Japan. There is, however, even more to the sheer bravery with whic