Regardless of the best hopes of medieval thinkers and authors to find meaning despite chaos, the reality of a social and political order crumbling into ruin was most certainly impossible to ignore. The Kamakura era is replete with violence and social turmoil. To spiritual leaders, this was not the realization of an eternal cycle of death and rebirth, but rather, the end of reality as it was known, the complete destruction of the spiritual traditions which maintained order in the universe:

The waning of an aesthetically brilliant court society, accompanied by warfare, natural disaster, and disruption, gave to the twelfth century a pervading mood of pessimism. This pessimism was accentuated by widespread belief that the age was one of mappo, or “the end of the Buddhist law.” According to Buddhist tradition, history would progress through three stages following the death of the historical Buddha, Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.). First, there would be a stage of shoho, or “the flourishing of the law,” when the teachings of the Buddha would be thoroughly understood and practiced everywhere. This would be followed by a time of zoho, or “the reflected law,” when the Buddhist teachings would still be known, but would not be accepted or practiced with the same vigor as before. Finally, there would come an age of mappo, when the Buddhist law would disappear and darkness and ignorance would descend upon the world. (Varley: Warriors of Japan 16)

Paul Varley extends the argument that within this sense of pessimism also existed a realization, one which is not negative but which is accepting in its understanding of the true nature of human existence: Despite the mappo pessimism of the times, it was in fact largely in Buddhist terms that the first positive attempts were made to explain the reasons for the rise of the military and their new role in state affairs. The author or authors of the famous war tale, Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike), express a pessimistic attitude of resignation and an acceptance of military struggle as a reflection of the impermanence of all things . . . (16)

Varley argues that Kamakura society, due to the general upheaval of the nation and the uncertainty of the future, made the people pessimistic. While it is true that large segments of various Buddhist orders truly believed that the end of the world was at hand, The Tale of the Heike, to some extent, does not share this sense of utter hopelessness. There is a sense of ease throughout the text, and, although there is a recognition that life is fleeting and mortal pride is futile, an acceptance of the inevitability of death is accompanied by a tone not of despair, but of calm recognition. There is no sense of hopelessness in the heroic deaths of samurai within the narrative, but rather, a belief that one has played one's role in a reality which is continually changing, continually struggling.

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