Born free.
自由に生まれて says born free, the English title of the 1966 film and its Academy Award-winning song, in plain Japanese. Worn as a tattoo, it says your freedom was yours from the start.
Fine Japanese Calligraphy
The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
Born free.
自由に生まれて says born free, the English title of the 1966 film and its Academy Award-winning song, in plain Japanese. Worn as a tattoo, it says your freedom was yours from the start.
自由 jiyū is freedom, an old word for as one pleases and a new one in the sense meant here, in a dictionary for liberty by 1862 and in the constitution of 1889; に makes it the manner; 生まれて umarete is the connective form of to be born, so the phrase is a fragment, born free and…, exactly as the English title is. It carries the English title of the 1966 film of Elsa the lioness fairly.
The phrase is Meiji Japanese for born free: a Roman history of 1874 already writes it, and before 1900 it carried the first article of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the first line of Rousseau's Social Contract; the 1966 film came to Japan as 野生のエルザ.
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 自由に生まれて.
Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.
Your purchase includes a personal-use license: use the design as a tattoo reference, frame it, engrave it, print it for yourself, or make it into a gift. For more information see Licensing, which also covers commercial-use options that may be purchased separately.
Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.
If you need your design again later, ask us for it and we will send it.
Master Takase personally brushes your scroll when you order, and it bears her red seal and her signature. The scroll has woven damask borders and layered Japanese paper, so it hangs straight, and it arrives ready to display.