Those that have a solid grasp of modern Japanese, may have encountered Classical Japanese before, or at least been curious about it.
For me, it has always been a bit of a black box:
What’s the difference between -nu and -zu? What’s this -keri form? What’s a nidan verb? Shuushikei? How does nari work?When did this w- get attached to the beginning of kana word in old form? Why do the kana ゐ and ゑ even exist?
However, a number of years ago, a primer set of articles gave an excellent introduction from scratch, which I would suggest as a great place to start.
I came in thinking that Classical Japanese might be a bit like Old English, completely cut off from any semblance from the modern language, or to any formal grammatical structure. I am happy to say that I was very wrong.
***Some advantages such knowledge provides:***
\-reading Classical material, such as waka, tanka and haikus. Not to mention Noh plays, Heian era material…
\-proverbs that seep into modern Japanese
\-understanding where Japanese dialects developed from
\-experiencing the highest forms of Keigo (and perhaps come to the conclusion that modern Keigo isn’t so bad by comparison)
\-being able to talk like a samurai
\-a more wholistic understand of Japanese by knowing how many forms and expressions developed
\-**Most importantly:** Japanese changes from a language with a literature of only 150 years to one of over 1000 years. Perhaps one of the richest in the world. Why would one not wish to unlock something like that?
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The rules of Classical Japanese (Kobun) seem to be very strongly circumscribed. So much so that tables can be used to follow conjugations. It can be challenging, but nowhere near impossibly difficult. But the process I have found very rewarding, unlocking Japanese in its possibly most sublime and poetic forms.
The articles are a bit hard to find using a search engine so I have compiled the links here. All written 10 years ago by a Tofugu poster named Rochelle, who clearly is very good at presenting the material in an accessible way in just 7 articles:
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[KOBUN: CLASSICAL JAPANESE](https://www.tofugu.com/series/kobun-guide/)
[AN INTRODUCTION TO READING KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE)](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-reading-introduction/)
[KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE) VERBS & HOW TO USE THEM](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-verbs/)
[KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE) and HOW TO USE HELPER VERBS](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-jodoushi/)
[KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE) – ADJECTIVES & MUSUBI](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-adjectives/)
[KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE) & HONORIFICS](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-honorifics/)
[KOBUN (CLASSICAL JAPANESE) – OLD KANA](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kobun-old-kana/)
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***Extra – Don’t let the following number of links worry you, they are just presenting the same material as above in a different way:***
[Sengoku Daimyo](https://sengokudaimyo.com/bungo/introduction): Classical Japanese section has its own lessons, similar to above
[Kafka Fuura’s WordPress on Classical Japanese](https://kafkafuura.wordpress.com/classical-japanese/) \- lessons, similar to above
[Japanese Kobun form cheat sheet](https://ja.wikibooks.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A4%E8%AA%9E%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8%E8%A1%A8):
Another cheat Sheet for the Helper verbs available [here](https://honda-n2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ed6803d8649bc9c414637990af6c48bd.png):
[Weblio – Kobun](https://kobun.weblio.jp/) \- The go-to online dictionary for all things Classical Japanese
Note that Classical Japanese: A Grammar by Haruo Shirane is considered the gold standard of textbooks on this subject.
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*One tiny set of examples:* The famously nebulous (as it is not given in standard Japanese) speech by the Emperor of Japan ending WW2 (the 玉音放送 or “Jeweled Voice Broadcast”) suddenly became understandable by applying the rules I learned (suddenly getting 戦局必ずしも好転せず, 世界の大勢また我に利**あらず** is a moment I won’t forget).
Or the Meiji poem: 四方の海 みな**はらから**と 思ふ世に **など**波風は たちさわぐ**らむ**
I am giving these examples as they are not ancient material but relatively recent, as well as historically relevant. Classical Japanese unlocks Japanese in a way you won’t believe, particularly the further you go back.
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Special thanks to this wonderful subreddit and its users for allowing me to discover this.