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自由に生まれて jiyū ni umarete Born Free

自由に生まれて (jiyū ni umarete), born free, is a fragment, as the English is. It is Meiji Japanese, and a Roman history of 1874 already writes it. This study follows it through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Rousseau to the film of 1966, a late bearer of the words.

Japanese Scroll of Born Free (jiyū ni umarete) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Born Free自由に生まれてjiyū ni umarete

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

自由に生まれて, jiyū ni umarete, born free, is a fragment as the English is: the connective form of 生まれる, born free, and…. It is old Japanese for an old phrase: in the spelling 自由に生れ it stands in a Roman history of 1874, in the first article of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man by 1891 and in Rousseau's first line by 1899, and in the spelling sold it is in print from 1920. Its 自由, in the sense of liberty, is a Meiji word, and the 1966 film Born Free, which came to Japan as 野生のエルザ, is a late bearer of the words rather than their source.

Overview

The sense. Plain Japanese, and a fragment. 自由に生まれて, born free, ends in the connective form of 生まれる, so it reads born free, and …, the way the English does. It is grammatical and reads at once, and its sources are European: Rousseau, the declarations of rights, the English free-born.

The words. 自由 jiyū, freedom, is old in the sense as one pleases, cited from 777, and new in the sense meant here: a dictionary of 1862 gives it for liberty, and the Meiji Constitution of 1889 fixed the word in 居住及移転の自由, freedom of residence and movement [1]. Fukuzawa Yukichi wrote twice that the word fell short. In 1866, in the first part of 西洋事情, a note on 自主任意自由 says that the English call it freedom or liberty and that there is 未タ的當ノ譯字アラス, as yet no fitting translation [2]. In 1870, in the second part, he wrote that the translations 自由 for liberty and 通義 for right, often used, 原意ヲ盡スニ足ラス, do not suffice for the original sense [3]. 生まれて umarete is the connective form of 生まれる, 子が母親の胎内から出る。…出生する。誕生する, to come from the mother's womb; to be born, cited from the 万葉集, うぐひすの卵の中にほととぎす独り所生て, in the warbler's eggs a cuckoo alone is born [4]; so the phrase is a fragment, born free and …, the way the English is.

The text in English. The English words are the same words in the other order [5]: 自由に, free, then 生まれて, born.

The historical record

The phrase in print, 1874 to 1907. In the older spelling 自由に生れ the phrase is Meiji Japanese for born free and free-born. A Roman history of 1874 edited by 大槻文彦 tells of pirates who, when a captive named himself a Roman, made a show of honoring him, led him to the ship's side and threw him into the sea, saying 不覊自由ニ生レタル羅馬人ハ我輩决シテ之ヲ拘留セズ, a Roman born free and unbound we will by no means detain [6]. A translated political science of 1891 gives the first article of the French Declaration of 1789 as 人は自由に生れ自由に存立し法律に於て平等なり, man is born free, remains free, and is equal under the law [7]. In 1899 福島静斎 set Rousseau's first line in French and Japanese, L'homme est né libre, 人は自由に生れたるものなり, and called it the first words of the Social Contract [8]; in 1907 夏目漱石's 文学論 refers in passing to Rousseau's 人は自由に生れたり [9].

In the spelling sold. 自由に生まれて, with the modern まれ, is in the Library's full-text search from an education journal of 1920 and a book of 1922, both quoting all men are born free and remain free, and from 1948 it carries Rousseau's line in the political science books, 人類は、自由に生まれてゐるに拘らず、到るところ、鐵鎖に繋がれてゐる, man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains [10]. The Library's search of its public-domain books alone has the older 自由に生れて in 25 books from 1896, and no book in the spelling 自由に生まれて [11].

The film. Born Free is Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fiction book about raising the lioness Elsa in Kenya and returning her to the wild, and the 1966 British drama film made from it, with Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson; its title song, by John Barry and Don Black, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song [12]. The book came into Japanese in 1962 as 『野生のエルザ』, and the film came under the same title [13]. A film magazine of February 1965 gives 「自由に生まれて」 once, in an item on the film before its release [14]. The phrase the film took for its title had been Japanese for ninety years.

A reading

自由に生まれて is old Japanese for an old European phrase, and it stands in the line of Rousseau and the declarations before it stands in the film's. It is a fragment for a fragment, and the words that followed it in print tell what it was for: and remains free, or and everywhere he is in chains. The 自由 in it is the Meiji word for liberty, the one Fukuzawa said did not yet carry the original.

References

  1. 「自由」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/自由
  2. 福沢諭吉, 『西洋事情』 初編 巻之一, 1866, leaf 7, the note on 自主任意自由; read in the second printing of 1872, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/761234/1/13
  3. 福沢諭吉, 『西洋事情』 二編 巻之一, 例言, 1870, leaf 3; read in the printing of 1872, scan 4. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/761237/1/4
  4. 「生れる」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/生れる-441450
  5. JMdict (EDRDG), 「自由に」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/word/自由に
  6. 大槻文彦 編訳, 『羅馬史略』 巻四, 1874, leaf 44, scan 98. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/777001/1/98
  7. クレーン 著, 石原健三・木下新三郎 訳, 『政治学』, 1891, printed p. 485, scan 253. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/783285/1/253
  8. 福島静斎, 『静斎遺稿』, 大田三郎 編, 1899, printed p. 284, scan 156. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/898705/1/156
  9. 夏目漱石, 『文学論』, 1907, printed p. 582, scan 310. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/871770/1/310
  10. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search on 自由に生まれて, oldest first, searched 30 September 2026: 237 items; 『帝国教育』 July 1920 and 納武津 『社会の話』 1922 read at the search's excerpt. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=自由に生まれて&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
  11. National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 自由に生れて and on 自由に生まれて, searched 30 September 2026: 25 books and 0. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=自由に生れて
  12. "Born Free", English Wikipedia; "Born Free (Matt Monro song)", English Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Free · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Free_(Matt_Monro_song)
  13. ジョイ・アダムソン 著, 藤原英司 訳, 『野生のエルザ』, 文芸春秋新社, 1962; the film as 『野生のエルザ』, 1966; National Diet Library Search. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000001-I15111100166085 · https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000136-I1970867909812515752
  14. 『映画ストーリー』, February 1965, read at the National Diet Library's search excerpt. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3543955

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-06, citations of the grouped history — the bracketed paragraphs checked with web search on; one contradicted (a slogan dated 'late 2000s and 2010s' where the source says 'early 2010s', in another phrase's paragraph; corrected); one not found (kotobank.jp/word/生まれる serves a 2011 television drama, not the verb; the verb's entry is at kotobank.jp/word/生れる-441450 and the reference now points there); the Lab search transcript was beyond the checker. Not re-run on the s356 amendment.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 自由に生まれて (jiyū ni umarete)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/jiyu-ni-umarete.