It is well known that hentai kanbun was used historically as a method for writing Japanese, though it incorporates certain aspects of Chinese grammar, for instance using word order to mark grammatical relations rather than morphological affixes or particles. Interestingly, however, word order patterns in hentai kanbun often differ from both Japanese and Chinese. This presentation examines various word order patterns employed for marking grammatical relations in the Kojiki, Nihon Ryoiki, Shomonki, and Mido Kanpakuki and on the basis of these differences discusses the systematic ways in which these patterns changed over time.