A popular photo of a barn owl running across a lawn just got the ultimate honor: it’s been immortalized by Japan’s premier royalty-free illustration site.
63-year-old Dutch photographer Hannie Heere snapped the iconic photo in 2021, shared here by PetaPixel along with an interview with Heere. It shows a barn owl who’s yet to learn how to fly developing its leg muscles by engaging in a full-fledged gallop across the grass.
The photo went viral on Reddit and social media, with people offering up cheeky comments on the cute af little moppet. (“Get out of the way,” one commenter wrote. “Got important owl shit to do.”) Heere, who said she’s practiced photography as a hobby since 2016, was surprised by the reaction the photo garnered.
Recently, the pic’s gained a lot of attention on Japanese social media, almost three and a half years after it initially took off. One repost by professor Masayuki Tsuda at Osaka University on February 23rd has amassed 320,000 likes.
Now, Japan’s most famous free illustration company has gotten in on the act. Irasutoya, which hosts thousands of illustrations, is an extremely popular resource for its unique form of stock art. The site, created by illustrator Mifune Takashi, announced on its official account that it had created its own version of the barn owl chick for royalty-free use.
Started in 2016 by Mifune, the site is used by various online publications, companies, and even many Japanese local governments to add color and fun to their materials. Irasutoya’s materials remain free for non-commercial use, with commercial use of more than 20 illustrations requiring a small 1,000 yen per illustration fee.
Irasutoya has made a name for its creator – and earned them a considerable number of commercial collaborations. The site has worked with a number of famous anime, including creating a series of ONE PIECE illustrations (available here) and a merchandising campaign last year with the popular manga and anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. The site currently has a collaboration with popular image design site Canva (a service that UJ uses and heartily endorses).
The site also updates itself regularly with illustrations related to current events. For example, it has a number of illustrations supportively depicting couples in same-sex relationships – a nod to the growing awareness around LGBTQ rights in Japan.
You can download and use the illustration from Irasutoya’s site. If you want more of Hannie Heere’s works, you can follow her on Facebook.
Why this page doesn't look like crap
You may notice a few things about this page. First, it’s mostly content – not ads. Second, this article was written by a human, not a plagiaristic Turing machine.
Unseen Japan is a collective of independent authors. We work hard to keep our content free of intrusive ads and AI slop.Â
Help us keep it that way. Donate to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund to support our work. Regular donors will receive Insider, our paid newsletter with weekly bonus content about Japan. Plus, your contribution will help us produce more content like this.
What to read next
July 5 Is the End of the World. Come Celebrate With Me on July 6
Is Japan going to sink to the bottom of the ocean on July 5th? Not likely. But what does a manga author’s prediction tell us about society?
Why a Marcille Cosplay at Osaka Expo Resulted in Death Threats
A Japanese cosplayer opened up recently about the slander and threats she received for appearing at Expo as the popular character.
Otaku Apocalypse: Good Smile Restricts US Purchases Amidst Trump Tariff Chaos
The retailer of manga and anime figures says it won’t allow pre-orders or send shipments to the US until things settle.
