Cultures from all over the world have, within their own societal constructs, expressions of the warrior figure. Within these expressions of the warrior also exist certain codes and patterned behaviors which are attributed to the fighting man. Huizinga, in his text The Waning of the Middle Ages, argues that chivalric codes are a global phenomenon:

A conception of military life resembling that of medieval chivalry is found nearly everywhere, notably with the Hindus of the Mahabharata and in Japan. Warlike aristocracies need an ideal form of manly perfection. The aspiration to a pure and beautiful life, expressed in the Kalokagathia of the Hellenes, in the Middle Ages gives birth to chivalry. (40)

Warrior codes of conduct are an international phenomenon. North American native cultures, replete with wide varieties of initiation rites and rituals, make clear distinctions between boys and men, the warrior class and the rest of society. Feudal England, Germany, and France, have their own variations on the same theme. The same holds for Japan's feudal structures of samurai in its society as it is for European knights inasmuch as they are both distinguished from other classes in society. For the comparatist, the challenge is seeking out the legitimate areas of commonality and distinguishing the different modes by which the shared foundation is expressed. As we begin to consider these two texts, the term “epic” is often applied to the Heike Monogatari, a suggestion that it has the same sense of medieval tales based on epics that we would find in classic European texts, such as The Song of Roland, but this is an erroneous assumption. The Heike Monogatari is, for a Japanese readership, a foundational text in their own literature but it does not portray such epic heroes as we would find in a text like The Song of Roland where heroes exist largely as public examples to serve the common weal. Robert F. Cook, in his book The Sense of the Song of Roland, identifies this sense of public service as it relates to a feudal Christian perspective:

The Song of Roland refers, then, not precisely to a code, but to a right understanding of civilized behavior in the feudal Christian matrix. That is clear from what happens to the central Christian characters . . . Personal honesty and truthfulness are themselves traditionally Christian ethical concerns. Here is where the strong link between personal and public morality characteristic of feudalism comes into play again, for the ethic of honesty in the Song of Roland is also a public and practical one . . . I think it is impossible to give an adequate account of what Roland says and does unless we perceive his behavior as coherent also, and as ethically consistent. (214)

Both Chretien de Troyes' Yvain and the Heike Monogatari, like European epics, serve the public but in a way which emphasizes over-all thematic qualities, rather than exemplary heroes. As we examine both texts closely, we will see that ethical matters are neither coherent or consistent. But before we investigate the various themes that permeate these texts, there are also historical parallels which exist between these two cultural representations of the warrior which ought to be noted.

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