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In the examples below

> 彼は私のところに荷物を送って **き** た。  
>  彼は私のところに荷物を送って **来** た。
>
> 荷物が私のところに送られて **き** た。  
>  荷物が私のところに送られて **来** た。

would it be better to use the termination/set phrase てきた？ (no kanji) because
this is changing the nuance of the sentence? Or should it be understood
literally (arrived) and therefore we て来た (with kanji) is more natural?
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2016-05-13T16:15:22.750
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question
grammar word-choice nuances
Should I use ～てきた or ～て来た?
In my experience, when in the 〜て＋くる form, it is more often written as Hiragana
as opposed to Kanji. However, I don't think there is any major nuance
difference.

In the case when there is nothing actually physically arriving and the verb is
used more metaphorically, like "わかってきた” or "頑張ってきた”, I feel like it is even
more common to use Hiragana over Kanji.

Personally, I always use Hiragana with the 〜て＋くる form.

Of course, if the verb was used by itself, I think it would be more natural to
use Kanji (i.e. 友達が来たよ), though you could still write it either way.

Similarly, I feel that some of the other 〜て＋[some verb] forms more commonly
use the second verb in it's hiragana form. Ex: "やってみる" or "置いておく"

I think the usage of whether Kanji is used is a very subtle matter, and the
author's choice of which to use can be related to the tone they want to
impart, and their target audience. Using Kanji generally feels more 'formal'
to me.
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2016-05-13T17:33:51.440
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**TL;DR:** Whichever is fine, but using くる is safer.

* * *

You seem to know the basic rule, but just to make sure, this type of verb
after `te-form of another verb + て/で` is called a _subsidiary verb_ , and they
are generally written in hiragana.

  * [What is a subsidiary verb?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/18952/what-is-a-subsidiary-verb)

But this rule is not very strict, and every so often you will see people use
kanji for subsidiary verbs, especially in stiff and stilted writings.

However, verbs after the te-forms are not always subsidiary verbs. きた in
暖かくなってきた is definitely a subsidiary verb, while 来た in 彼は急いで来た ("He came in a
hurry") is a normal verb, so it is usually written in kanji. 見た in 箱を開けて見た ("I
opened the box and looked (inside it)") is used as a normal verb, while みた in
箱を開けてみた ("I tried opening the box") is used as a subsidiary verb.

So the problem is this: **Is きた in 荷物を送ってきた a subsidiary verb or a normal
verb? How about きた in 荷物が送られてきた?**

Well, I believe these きた can safely be considered as a subsidiary verb.
[デジタル大辞泉 clearly defines these usages under the 補助動詞
section](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/64270/meaning/m0u/%E6%9D%A5%E3%82%8B/):

> ９ （補助動詞）動詞の連用形に接続助詞「て」が付いた形に付く。  
>  (snip)  
>  ㋒ある動作をしてもとに戻る。…しに行って帰る。「買い物に行ってくる」「外国の事情をつぶさに見てこようと思っている」  
>  ㋓ある動作・状態をそのまま続けながら、こちらへ近づく。また、そのようにしてこちらへ至る。「敵が押し寄せてくる」「付き添ってくる」

So the safer choice is to use hiragana for both of your examples.

But I also feel using kanji is not so unnatural in these cases, because
something is physically moving. People often use the kanji 来る even in casual
situations when something is physically moving to you. I personally am
inclined to use hiragana for those cases, but perhaps this is a gray-area
matter and it's up to the writer's taste.
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answer
Basically you can use either of them. However, in professional writing, you
have to write subsidiary verbs in hiragana.

In 1981, Japanese government issued a cabinet directive
“公用文における漢字使用等について（昭和56年内閣閣第138号）” (About Kanji Usage in Official Documents) as
a part of an orthography reform. It has examples that subsidiary verbs should
be written in hiragana. Most publishers and newspaper offices follow the
directive also. Moreover, I was taught the rule about subsidiary verbs in a
elementary school.

The directive have legal force only with official documents from the
government; so you may see some subsidiary verbs which are usually used in
personal communication, e.g. [致]{いた}す and [下]{くだ}す, are still often written in
kanji.
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