When and how to use 来る 【きたる】

Question

Of course 来る is most often read as くる. However, it can also be read as きたる. Is きたる mostly an archaic reading? Does it carry a different, or any additional meanings?? When are "appropriate" (socially, grammatically, etc.) times to use it?

Answer 1

Basically, it is literary (and archaic), but there are some situations when it is still appropriate to use it in a modern context.

• In the sense of "the coming [time or event]" e.g. 来【きた】る土曜日 = "the coming Saturday"
• Related to the above, in the form 来【きた】るべき, meaning "the coming [thing]", "the [thing] that is sure to come", e.g. the title of Tezuka Osamu's manga "来【きた】るべき世界", translated as "Next World" in English I believe
• In the imperative form, as an invitation. For example, junior high and high school clubs often promote themselves at the start of the year with signs saying things like "来【き】たれ！野球部" or whatever. This is not an order but an attempt to entice people to come and check the club out.
• In set phrases like "来【きた】る者拒まず", which means that anyone who comes will be accepted (often paired with "去る者追わず", "... and anyone who leaves will not be pursued")

Outside of these usages, it has a literary flavor, sort of like "is come" or "cometh" (rather than "has come") in modern English.

Incidentally, I learned that although it looks like 来る + past/perfect aux. たる, it is actually a separate word derived from 来る + 至る; I just checked the 広辞苑 and 日本国語大辞典, and they agree with this (although obviously, sometimes the word きたる will in fact be 来る + たる). Special bonus trivia: the 来る + 至る /kitaru/ got its big break in the world of kanbun 漢文, as a pinch hitter for 来(る). (And it is true that the character 来 is generally rendered /kitaru/ in kanbun.) I can't find a reliable source for why kanbun kundoku doesn't just use /ku(ru)/, but some (e.g. fontomanie at Chiebukuro) suggest that it was because /ku(ru)/ didn't have enough syllables for convenient okurigana affixation (cf /nasu/ instead of /su(ru)/ for 為).

So, the specific literary flavor is that of kanbun or heavily Chinese-influenced Japanese, not "pure" classical Japanese.