力と名誉 chikara to meiyo Strength and Honor

力と名誉 is a pair, not a sentence: no verb, no command, only what a person carries. 力 here is strength of body and of spirit alike, and 名誉 is honor as a good name, the honor a person keeps. Whether it is for your own training or for someone who has earned both is yours.

力と名誉 is composed of the words 力 (read chikara) meaning "strength", the grammatical element と (read to) meaning "and", and the word 名誉 (read meiyo) meaning "honor".

The pairing is older than the film that made it a salute: Strength and honour are her clothing, Proverbs 31:25 in the King James Bible, before Maximus in Gladiator (2000); in Japanese the two nouns stand together from 1898, first in translations of Western texts and by 1912 in Japanese writers' own sentences, though never as a fixed phrase.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 力と名誉.

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.