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Urashima Tarō

Urashima Tarō (浦島 太郎) is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (otogi banashi), who, in a typical modern version, is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There, he is entertained by the princess Otohime as a reward. He spends what he believes to be several days with the princess. But when he returns to his home village, he discovers he has been gone for at least 100 years. When he opens the forbidden jewelled box (tamatebako), given to him by Otohime on his departure, he turns into an old man.

The tale originates from the legend of Urashimako (Urashima no ko or Ura no Shimako) recorded in various pieces of literature dating to the 8th century, such as the Fudoki for Tango Province, Nihon Shoki, and the Man'yōshū.

During the Muromachi to Edo periods, versions of Urashima Tarō appeared in storybook form called the Otogizōshi, made into finely painted picture scrolls and picture books or mass-printed copies. These texts vary considerably, and in some, the story ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane.

Some iconic elements in the modern version are relatively recent. The portrayal of him riding a turtle dates only to the early 18th century, and while he is carried underwater to the Dragon Palace in modern tellings, he rides a boat to the princess's world called Hōrai in older versions.

Folktale or fairy tale
The Urashima Tarō tale familiar to most Japanese follows the storyline of children's tale author in the Meiji period. A condensed version of Sazanami's retelling then appeared in, Japan's nationally designated textbook for elementary school, and became widely read by schoolchildren of the populace. Modern versions of Urashima Tarō, which are generally similar, are demonstrably based on the story from this nationally designated textbook series.

Plot
One day, a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō is fishing when he notices a group of children torturing a small turtle. Tarō saves it and lets it go back to the sea. The next day, a huge turtle approaches him and tells him that the small turtle he had saved is the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryūjin, who wants to see him to thank him. The turtle magically gives Tarō gills and brings him to the bottom of the sea, to the Palace of the Dragon God (Ryūgū-jō). There he meets the Emperor and the small turtle, who was now a lovely princess, Otohime. The palace had a view to the four seasons, a different one on each side. Tarō stays there with Otohime for three days, but soon wants to go back to his village and see his aging mother, so he requests permission to leave. The princess says she is sorry to see him go, but wishes him well and gives him a mysterious box called tamatebako which will protect him from harm but which she tells him never to open. Tarō grabs the box, jumps on the back of the same turtle that had brought him there, and soon is at the seashore.

When he goes home, everything has changed. His home is gone, his mother has vanished, and the people he knew are nowhere to be seen. He asks if anybody knows a man called Urashima Tarō. They answer that they had heard someone of that name had vanished at sea long ago. He discovers that 300 years have passed since the day he left for the bottom of the sea. Struck by grief, he absent-mindedly opens the box the princess had given him, from which bursts forth a cloud of white smoke. He is suddenly aged, his beard long and white, and his back bent. From the sea comes the sad, sweet voice of the princess: "I told you not to open that box. In it was your old age ...".

Commonly known version

A summary of the Urashima tale from one of the nationalized textbooks will be given below. The base text used will be Urashima Tarō (うらしま太郎), from the 3rd edition of the or "national language reader", a widely familiar textbook used during the 1918–1932 period. An English translation has been provided in Yoshiko Holmes's thesis.

"Long ago, a man named Urashima Tarō of unidentified profession (or, in recent textbooks often a fisherman) found a turtle on the beach being toyed with by a group of children. He purchased the turtle and released it in the ocean.

Two or three days later, while he was fishing on a boat as always, the grateful turtle came and told him he would carry him on his back to the underwater Dragon Palace (Ryūgū ). At the palace, the princess (Otohime ) thanked him for saving the turtle.

After an unspecified number of days, remembrance of his mother and father made him homesick, and he bid farewell to Otohime. The princess tried to dissuade him from leaving, but finally let him go with a parting gift, a mysterious box called tamatebako whose lid he was told never to open.

When Tarō returned to his hometown, everything had changed. His home was gone, his mother and father had perished, and the people he knew were nowhere to be seen. After not remembering the princess's warning, he lifted the lid of the box. A cloud of white smoke arose, turning him to a white-haired old man."

The story remained as one of the dozen tales included in the 4th edition of national language reader textbooks also known as used from 1933 to c. 1940, thus continuing to enjoy wide recognition; for this reason Urashima could be considered one of the core stories of the so-called Japanese "national fairy tales".

School song
A number of renditions exist, where they are set to music. Among the most popular is the school song "Urashima Tarō" (浦島太郎) of 1911 which begins with the line "Mukashi, mukashi Urashima wa, tasuketa kame ni tsurerarete (Long long ago was Urashima, by the turtle he rescued taken to the sea)", printed in the  (1911). This song's author was long relegated to anonymity, but the lyricist is now considered to be.

Another school song "Urashima Tarō" (うらしまたろう, lyrics by and music by ) appeared in the Yōnen shōka (1900). Although written in stilted classical language, Miura considered this version the more familiar.

Otogizōshi
Long before the versions in 19th century textbooks, there had been the otogi-zōshi versions from the Muromachi period. Conventionally, commentators using the term otogizōshi are referring by default to the text found in the Otogi Bunko (or "Companion Library"), since it was printed and widely disseminated.

Otogi Bunko
In the Otogi Bunko (or "Companion Library") version, a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō catches a turtle on his fishing line and releases it. The next day, Urashima encounters a boat with a woman on it wishing to be escorted home. She does not identify herself, although she is the transformation of the turtle that was spared. When Urashima rows her boat to her magnificent residence, she proposes that they marry. The residence is the Dragon Palace, and on the four sides of the palace, each gardenscape is in a different season. Urashima decides to return to his home after three years and is given a memento box (かたみの筥/箱) in parting. He arrives in his hometown to find it desolate, and discovers 700 years have passed since he last left it. He cannot restrain his temptation to open the box which he was cautioned not to open, whereupon three wisps of purple cloud appear and turn him into an old man. It ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane, and his wife reverting to the form of a turtle, the two thereafter revered as myōjin (Shinto deities).

Variants and groups
There are over 50 texts of the Urashima Tarō otogi-zōshi extant. These variants fall into four broad groups, clustered by their similarity. The Otogi Bunko text belongs to Group IV.

Group closest to modern version

The Otogi Bunko version, despite its conventional status as the type text, differs considerably from the typical children's storybook published in the modern day: the protagonist neither purchases the turtle from others to save it, nor rides the turtle.

Group I texts are more similar to the modern version, as it contains the element of Urashima purchasing the turtle to save it. Additionally, this group explicitly gives the princess's name as Otomime (or "Kame-no-Otohime") whereas she remains unnamed in the Otogi Bunko group. And the expression tamatebako or "jeweled hand-box" familiar to modern readers is also seen in the main text of Group I, and not the other groups (the interpolated poem excepted).

The picture scroll in the collection of the Bodleian Library, Oxford University also belongs to Group I.

Hayashi Kouhei has highlighted the characteristics of the Group I texts as follows: 1) Urashima purchases a turtle caught by others, 2) Boat arrives to convey him to Horai, 3) The four seasons assuage rather than provoke his homesickness, 4) The villagers in recognition of his longevity give him proper cremation, 5) Smoke from the tamatebako reaches Horai and Princess Otohime is grief-stricken.

Seki's version in English
The tale of "Urashima Taro" in Keigo Seki's anthology (translated into English 1963), was a version told in Nakatado District, Kagawa. In this variant, Urashima is localized as being from "Kitamae Oshima". It incorporates both the motif of the turtle being caught while fishing, and that of Urashima transforming into a crane at the end, which are found in the Otogizōshi.

Here, it was a three-tiered jeweled hand-box (三重ねの玉手箱), that is to say, a stacked box that was given to Urashima. When he opened the lid, the first box (on the top) contained a crane's feather, and the second a puff of white smoke that turned him into an old man, and the third a mirror, which made him see for himself that he had suddenly grown old. The feather from the first box then attached itself to his back, and Urashima flew up to the sky, encircling his mother's grave.

Versions retold in English
The story entitled "The Fisher-boy Urashima" (1886) retold by Basil Hall Chamberlain, was number 8 in the "Japanese Fairy Tale Series", printed by Hasegawa Takejirō, the issuer of many such chirimen-bon or "crepe-paper books". Although the illustrations are not credited in the publication, they have been attributed to Kobayashi Eitaku.

There is no single base text in Japanese identifiable, although it has been conjectured that Chamberlain adapted from "a popular version" and not straying far from it except adding explanatory or instructive passages for young readers. Others have determined it must have been a composite consisting of older traditions from the Nihon Shoki and Man'yōshū, combined with the near-modern Otogizōshi storybook plot, Chamberlain preferring to incorporate details from the ancient texts, while eschewing embellishment from the Otogizōshi. Chamberlain has also published a versified version of the tale.

In Chamberlain's fairytale version, "Urashima" (not "Tarō") catches a tortoise (sic) while fishing on his boat, and releases it. The tortoise reappears in her true form as the Sea-God's daughter, and invites him to the Dragon Palace.

There the couple are married and live happily for 3 years, but Urashima misses seeing his parents and his brothers. The Dragon Princess reluctantly allows him to leave, giving him a box he is instructed never to open, for it will cause him never to be able to return to the palace. When he returns to his home village, his absence turns out to have been 400 years. Urashima now wishes to go back to the Dragon Palace but he does not know the means, and opens the box. He turns into a white-haired, wrinkled old man and dies. The ending by death concurs with older tradition, and not the otogi-zōshi storybook.

Lafcadio Hearn, who lived in Japan and translated or adapted many ghost stories from the country, rewrote the Urashima tale under the title The Dream of a Summer Day in the late 19th century, working off of a copy of Chamberlain's "Japanese Fairy Tale Series" version.

Variations
As always with folklore, there are many different versions of this story.

There are other versions that add a further epilogue explaining the subsequent fate of Urashima Tarō after he turns into an old man. In one, he falls to dust and dies, in another, he transforms into a crane and flies up to the sky. In another, he grows gills and leaps into the sea, whereby he regains his youth.

In another version Urashima ate a magic pill that gave him the ability to breathe underwater. In another version, he is swept away by a storm before he can rescue the turtle.

History
The full name Urashima Tarō was not given to the character until the 15th century (the Muromachi period), first appearing in a genre of illustrated popular fiction known as otogizōshi, and in the kyōgen play adaptation.

The story itself can be found in much older sources, dating to the 8th century (the Nara period), where the protagonist is styled either "Urashima no ko" or "Ura (no) Shimako", attested in earlier sources such as the Fudoki for Tango Province (Tango no Kuni Fudoki, 丹後国風土記) that survived in excerpts, the Man'yōshū and the Nihon Shoki.

More recent editions of these texts tend to favor the "Ura (no) Shimako" reading, although some consider this debatable.

It has also been proposed that it was not until the Heian Period that the misreading "Urashima (no) ko" became current, because names with the suffix -ko ("child") came to be regarded as female, even though it once applied to either gender. When the texts were written for the kyōgen theatre, the character's name underwent further change to Urashima Tarō, with -tarō ("great youth") being a common suffix in male names. Or perhaps the name was borrowed from who is a stock character in kyōgen.

Dragon Palace
The Man'yōshū ballad mentions not only the woman of the Immortal Land, but her father as the Sea God (Watatsumi). Although this Sea God cannot be automatically equated with the Dragon God or Dragon King, due to the influence of the Chinese mythology of Nine Offspring of the Dragon in the Tang period, it has been speculated that the turtle princess must have been the Dragon King's daughter in even those early versions.

The otherworld Urashima visited was not the "Dragon Palace" (Ryūgū) until the otogi-zōshi versions appeared. The heroine then became Otohime, the younger daughter of the Dragon King.

Relative dates
As for the relative dating of these texts, an argument has been advanced that places the Fudoki version as the oldest. The argument dates the Tango fudoki to shortly after 715, but the compilers refer to an earlier record by, which was identical in content. It has even been suggested by Shūichi Katō that this Umakai originally adapted this tale into Japanese from a similar Chinese tale.

Tango Fudoki
In this version, the protagonist is referred to as "Urashimako of Mizunoe" (or "Urashimako of in Yosa-gun".

Urashimako catches a five-coloured turtle and keeps it in his boat, and during his sleep, the creature transforms into a beautiful woman. She identifies herself as someone from the household of immortals, and proposes to take him to the place of immortals, which may be Horaisan (Mount Penglai) or "Tokoyo-no-kuni" ("Timeless Land" or "Land of Eternity").

They are greeted by first seven, then eight children, who represent the constellations of Pleiades and Taurus (or more precisely the Hyades cluster) who address him as the "husband of Kame Hime (Princess Turtle)". The remainder is mostly the same as the typical tale.

After three years, the man develops a longing for his parents and homeland. The princess is saddened, but imparts him with a jeweled comb box (玉匣), forbidding him to open it if he wished ever to return to her. He returns and finds no trace of his home or family, except that he is remembered as a man who disappeared long ago, and would be over three hundred years old if still alive. Forgetting the promise, he opens the box, whereupon a beautiful figure like a fragrant orchid is carried away to the heavens with the clouds, and he realizes he can never meet the princess again. Still, the couple are somehow (supernaturally) able to exchange poems. These poems are recorded in phonetic man'yōgana.

Nihon Shoki
In the Nihon Shoki, Urashimako of Mizunoe is mentioned in the entry for Autumn, 7th month the 22nd year of reign of Emperor Yūryaku. Aston's translation assigns this the year 478 A.D. The entry states that Urashimako (child Urashima, child of Urashima, etc.) of Mizunoe while fishing on a boat, caught a turtle which transformed into a woman. They went into the sea, and reached Mount Hōrai (glossed in kana as Tokoyo ), where they saw immortals (仙衆 (ひじり)).

As to the phrase that they go "into the sea" implies, the Mount Hōrai as conceived here may be a submarine island, a suggestion made by Japanese literature professor.

Manyoshu
A poem reflecting upon the legend of Urashima of Mizunoe occurs in the Man'yōshū. The piece is ascribed to Takahashi no Mushimaro. Early translations include the prose rendition by Aston, and the ballad-form by Chamberlain.

In this version, the woman of the Immortal Land (Tokoyo) appears as the daughter of the Sea God (Watatsumi no kami).

Yokohama

Basil Hall Chamberlain (1880) indicated the presence of a temple dedicated to Urashima at Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, which housed several relics such as Urashima's fishing-line, and the casket (tamatebako). But when Ernest Satow went there with Chamberlain on 2 May 1880, there was nothing left to see except the statue of Kannon (Kanzeon), the bodhisattva of mercy. Neither recorded the name to the temple, but Japanese sources write that the so-called Urashima-dera (Urashima Temple) used to be Kanpuku-ji (観福寺), until it burned down in 1868, and the temple, including the Kannon goddess statue got translated to Keiun-ji (慶運寺) in 1872.

The old Urashima-dera sat on a mountain top. There is a circulating pamphlet which shows the view of the harbor from this vantage point, depicting the fleet of Black Ships led by Commodore Perry's fleet in 1852–1854.

Local legend also claims native ties to Urashima Tarō, claiming that his father Urashima Tayū was originally from somewhere not far from Yokohama, in Miura District, Kanagawa in Sagami Province. But the father moved to Tango Province. This legend adds that when Urashima Tarō returned from the Dragon Place, he was guided to seek his parents' grave in "Shirahata, Musashi Province" (in today's Yokohama).

He finally found the grave, thanks to Princess Oto-hime who lit up an illuminating light on a pine branch. Tarō built a hut to live here, housing the goddess statue from the Dragon Palace. The hut later became Kampuku-ji temple.

Okinawa
Chamberlain noted the theory that the Dragon Palace might be a romanticized notion of Okinawa, since "Ryūgū" (Dragon Palace) and Ryūkyū (Okinawa) are near homophones.

Recorded in Irō setsuden (遺老説伝) of the 18th century, Tale 103 "A person of Yonaha village visits the Dragon Palace" is considered analogous to Urashima Tarō. In it, a certain man of Yonaha village in Haebaru finds a lock of black hair and returns it to a beautiful maiden. She leads him to the Dragon Palace. Three months pass and the man wishes to return, but the goddess reveals 33 generations have already passed in his absence. The man receives a folded-up piece of paper he is forbidden from unwrapping, but he opens this packet and a piece of white hair clings to him, turning him into an old man, and he dies. He was enshrined at the place which was named Usani-daki, because the man had "sat and reposed" (usani) in his despair.

Similar tales are found on Miyako-jima and other places. Yanagita Kunio felt that the notion of the Dragon Palace shared its origin with the concept of Niruya in the southerly islands of Japan.

Irō setsuden also records a similar tale, number 42, about Yoshinawa Fuyako (善縄大屋子), which describes a man who, bidden by a mysterious woman appeared before him, carried a large turtle to his home, which bit and gave him a terrible wound so that he was buried. But he turned out not to have died a mortals death, and lived on.

Kiso, Nagano

Local legend has it that Urashima Tarō once dwelled in the mountains of Kiso, Nagano. This legend originated in near-modern times, from the late Muromachi to Edo periods.

Although a contrived piece of fiction, the old-style jōruri Urashima Tarō (『浦嶋太郎』) situates its story in the vicinity of this local legend, namely Agematsu-juku. Urashima Tarō appears here as a child born after a local couple prays to Togakushi Myōjin. He and Tamayori-hime fall in love. She is very much a mortal, but after she commits suicide in Ina River (tributary of Kiso River), she becomes transformed into a supernatural being serving the Dragon Palace. A scale cloak lets her transform into a turtle, in which guise, she is reunited with Urashima Tarō who is fishing in Ina River. Note the "catching of the turtle" scene is transposed from ocean to a river in the mountains.

Comparative mythology
The story bears varying degrees of similarity to folktales from other cultures. Rip Van Winkle is the foremost familiar example, although strictly speaking this cannot be called a "folktale", since it is a fictional work by Washington Irving loosely based on folklore. Nevertheless, Urashima has been labeled the "Japanese Rip van Winkle", even in academic folkloristic literature. "Urashima" is also a Japanese metaphor similar to "Rip Van Winkle" for someone who feels lost in a world that has changed in their absence.

This pair of tales may not be the closest matching among the motif group. Writing in the 19th century, Lafcadio Hearn suggested that Irving wrote another piece called "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities", based on Portuguese tradition, which bore an even stronger resemblance to Urashima. Japanese art collector William Anderson also wrote that a certain Chinese tale was closer to "Rip Van Winkle" than Urashima was.

That Chinese analogue is the anecdote of the woodcutter Wang Zhi, who after watching immortals playing a board game discovers many years have passed. The piece is a selection in the or "Accounts of Strange Things", and is also known as the legend of Lankeshan or "Rotten Axe Handle Mountain". Sometimes this Chinese tale is conjectured as a possible actual source for Urashima, but there is lack of consensus among folklorists regarding their interrelationship.

Other cognate tales include the Irish legend of Oisín who met Niamh and spent his life with her in Tír na nÓg, and the Vietnamese legend of Từ Thức, who aids a goddess arrested for plucking a peony flower during a festival. In both these cases, the hero is united with a goddess who dwells in a land beyond the sea. Từ Thức's story is collected in Truyền kỳ mạn lục by Nguyễn Dữ.

The tale of Urashima Taro holds many similarities with tales of the international catalogue Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, grouped under type ATU 681, "The Relativity of Time". A similar story is The Marsh King's Daughter, a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. However, Hiroko Ikeda's Japanese index of folktales lists Urashima Taro as type 470*, "The Dragon Palace" or "Urashima Taroo".

Commemoration
A shrine on the western coast of the Tango Peninsula in northern Kyoto Prefecture, named Urashima Jinja, contains an old document describing a man, Urashimako, who left his land in 478 A.D. and visited a land where people never die. He returned in 825 A.D. with a Tamatebako. Ten days later he opened the box, and a cloud of white smoke was released, turning Urashimako into an old man. Later that year, after hearing the story, Emperor Junna ordered Ono no Takamura to build a shrine to commemorate Urashimako's strange voyage, and to house the Tamatebako and the spirit of Urashimako.

Adaptations
The animated adaptation Urashima Tarō of the tale, premiered in 1918, is among some of the oldest anime created in Japan, the same year that Oz author Ruth Plumly Thompson adapted it as "Urashima and the Princess of the Sea" for The Philadelphia Public Ledger.

The story influenced various works of fiction and a number of films. In 1945, Japanese writer Osamu Dazai published Otogizōshi ("fairytale book"), which includes a much expanded version of the story. Urashima's tale, as the other three included in the Otogizōshi, is used mostly as a platform for Dazai's own thoughts and musings. Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" (or "Another Story", 1994) is a reception of the Urashima story set in the Ekumen or Hainish universe.

The story was adapted in Brazil in the 1960s for use in an advertising campaign by airline Varig to promote the first direct flights between Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. The campaign was produced by Lynxfilm and created by Ruy Perotti. The theme, sung by Rosa Miyake, became famous throughout the country.

The Ultra Q episode title "Grow Up! Little Turtle" is largely based on Urashima Tarō's tale, along with elements of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and the original Gamera film. In it, Tarō is a schoolboy given to making up stories who is trying to grow a turtle to 99cm, at which point he believes it will take him to the Dragon Palace.

title: Urashima Tarō


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Talk:Escapology

Not a science
Does anybody out there think we ought mention that escapology is not a science? And that magicains hate being thought of as scientists because they have a higher calling, which is show business. This is a very nice article. Has it been conected to a sexual fetish page yet? You know straitjacket links here don't you? Two16 21:55 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

Book with escapology plot
I dunno about the above, but I have a question about

 * The book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize) features escapology as an important plot point.

Did he win the prize for this book, or a different one? It's ambiguous. Tokerboy

Chabon did indeed win the prize for this book. --TonyW 22:56, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Cleanup 2004
I'm flagging this article for cleanup - not for a lack of information or verve, just a whole lot of sloppy grammar/punctuation and what I think is an overly conversational tone for a reference article. --Hob 06:11, 2004 Aug 2 (UTC)

 * I tried indeed to shave off a bit from the chatty, conversational tone but now it has become a little menacing. These kinds of how-to's don't fit in with encyclopediae, I think...Srd2005 20:11, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * I agree. I was about to jump in and start copyediting but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it needed to be ruthlessly trimmed back. In fact the whole large section on techniques could probably be reduced to a couple of sentences. --LeeHunter 23:31, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Also, the Techniques section seems to be essentially a how-to in terms of keeping people bound up. Pvodenski 23:20, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
 * 19-Oct-2007: The wording now balances techniques for binding and escaping, as appropriate. -Wikid77 03:38, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Overview not how-to bind/escape
19-Oct-2007: The wording currently (under the Techniques section) is a balance, between techniques for binding and escaping, not just "keeping people bound" but both. I've written actual "how-to" articles (see: WikiHow), and such articles have many more details than the "Escapology" article techniques (which wouldn't qualify as "how-to" steps), so I think the perspective now is, correctly, an encyclopedic ("en-compassing") view of binding/escaping. Thanks to the other editors, who edited this article into the current balanced viewpoint. -Wikid77 03:38, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

References?
A careful reading of this article reveals that it's referencing is very harem-scarem......particularly some of the "Escapology in Ficion" bits......some need to be properly referenced. Other thoughts/opinions?? Buddpaul (talk) 18:52, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

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Occult escapology
If you pardon my f*** french, this sections looks like bullsh*t to me. Can anyone with real illusionism / stage magic background have a check? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.241.57.20 (talk) 12:15, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Escapology


text:
Japanese folktales

Japanese folktales  are an important cultural aspect of Japan. In commonplace usage, they signify a certain set of well-known classic tales, with a vague distinction of whether they fit the rigorous definition of "folktale" or not among various types of folklore. The admixed impostors are literate written pieces, dating back to the Muromachi period (14th–16th centuries) or even earlier times in the Middle Ages. These would not normally qualify for the English description "folktales" (i.e., pieces collected from oral tradition among the populace).

In a more stringent sense, "Japanese folktales" refers to orally transmitted folk narrative. Systematic collection of specimens was pioneered by the folklorist Kunio Yanagita. Yanagita disliked the word minwa (民話), a coined term directly translated from "folktale" (Yanagita stated that the term was not familiar to actual old folk he collected folktales from, and was not willing to "go along" with the conventions of other countries). He therefore proposed the use of the term mukashibanashi (昔話) to apply to all creative types of folktales (i.e., those that are not "legendary" types which are more of a reportage).

Overview
A representative sampling of Japanese folklore would definitely include the quintessential Momotarō (Peach Boy), and perhaps other folktales listed among the so-called "five great fairy tales" (五大昔話): the battle between The Crab and the Monkey, Shita-kiri Suzume (Tongue-cut sparrow), Hanasaka Jiisan (Flower-blooming old man), and Kachi-kachi Yama.

History
These stories just named are considered genuine folktales, having been so characterized by folklorist Kunio Yanagita. During the Edo period these tales had been adapted by professional writers and woodblock-printed in a form a called kusazōshi (cf. chapbooks), but a number of local variant versions of the tales have been collected in the field as well.

As stated above, non-genuine folktales are those already committed to writing long ago, the earliest being the tale of Princess Kaguya (or The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), an example of the monogatari type of romance dated to as early as the 10th century, though extant manuscripts are much later. The text mentions, for example, the flame-proof "fire rat (火鼠) (or salamander)'s fur robe," which attests to a considerable degree of book-knowledge and learning by its author.

Other examples of pseudo-folktales composed in the Middle Ages are the Uji Shūi Monogatari (13th century) that includes Kobutori Jīsan — the old man with the hump on his cheek — and Straw Millionaire. This and the Konjaku Monogatarishū (12th century) contain a number of a type of tales called setsuwa, a generic term for narratives of various nature, anything from moralizing to comical. Both works are divided into parts containing tales from India, tales from China, and tales from Japan. In the Konjaku Monogatarishū can be seen the early developments of the Kintarō legend, familiar in folktale-type form.

The Japanese word used to correspond to "folktale" has undergone development over the years. From the Edo period, the term used was otokibanashi (お伽話), i.e., tales told by the otogii-shū, professional storytellers hired to entertain the daimyō lord at the bedside. That term remained in currency through the Meiji era (late 19th century), when imported terms such as minwa began to be used. In the Taishō era the word dōwa (lit. "children's story", a loan translation for fairy tales or märchen) was used. Later Yanagita popularized the use of mukashi-banashi "tales of long ago", as mentioned before.

Some Japanese ghost stories or kaidan, such as the story of the Yuki-onna ("snow woman"), might be considered examples of folktales, but even though some overlaps may exist, they are usually treated as another genre. The familiar forms of stories are embellished works of literature by gesaku writers, or retooled for the kabuki theater performance, in the case of the bakeneko or monstrous cat. The famous collection Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn also consists of original retellings. Yanagita published a collection, 'Legends of Tōno (遠野物語)' (1910), which featured a number of fantastical yōkai creatures such as Zashiki-warashi and kappa.

In the middle years of the 20th century storytellers would often travel from town to town telling these stories with special paper illustrations called kamishibai.

List of Japanese folktales
Below is a list of well-known Japanese folktales:

Animals in folklore
Tongue-cut sparrow: A washer woman cut off the tongue of a sparrow that was pecking at her rice starch. The sparrow had been fed regularly by the washer woman's neighbors, so when the sparrow didn't come, they went in the woods to search for it. They found it, and after a feast and some dancing (which the sparrow prepared), the neighbors were given the choice between two boxes; one large and one small. The neighbors picked the small box, and it was filled with riches. The washer woman saw these riches and heard where they came from, so she went to the sparrow. She too was entertained and given the choice between two boxes. The washer woman picked the largest box and instead of gaining riches, she was devoured by devils.

Mandarin Ducks: A man kills a drake mandarin duck for food. That night he had a dream that a woman was accusing him of murdering her husband, and then told him to return to the lake. The man does this, and a female mandarin walks up to him and tears its chest open.

Tanuki and Rabbit: A man catches a tanuki and tells his wife to cook it in a stew. The tanuki begs the wife not to cook him and promises to help with the cooking if he is spared. The wife agrees and unties him. The tanuki then transforms into her and kills her, then cooks her in a stew. Disguised as the man's wife, the tanuki feeds him his wife. Once he is done, the tanuki transforms back to his original form and teases the man for eating his wife. A rabbit that was friends with the family was furious, so he had the tanuki carry sticks and, while he wasn't looking, set these sticks on fire. Then the rabbit treated the burn with hot pepper paste. Finally, the rabbit convinced the tanuki to build a boat of clay, and the rabbit followed in a sturdy boat. The clay boat began to sink, so the tanuki tried to escape, but then the rabbit hit him in the head with an oar, knocking him out and making him drown.

Badger and Fox cub: A badger, vixen, and the vixen's cub lived in a forest that was running out of food, so they came up with the plan of one of them pretending to be dead, the other disguising as a merchant, and the “merchant” selling the “dead” animal to a human. Then they would have money to buy food. The vixen pretended to be dead while the badger was the merchant. While the transaction was happening however, the badger told the human that the vixen wasn't actually dead, so the human killed her. This infuriated the cub, so he proposed a competition. They would both disguise as humans and go into the village at different times. Whoever guessed what “human” was the other first, wins. The cub walked towards the village first, but he hid behind a tree. The badger went into the village, and accused the governor of being the fox, so the bodyguards of the governor beheaded him.

Theorized influences
The folklore of Japan has been influenced by foreign literature as well as the kind of spirit worship prevalent all throughout prehistoric Asia.

The monkey stories of Japanese folklore have been influenced both by the Sanskrit epic Ramayana and the Chinese classic Journey to the West. The stories mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka tales appear in a modified form throughout the Japanese collection of popular stories.

Some stories of ancient India were influential in shaping Japanese stories by providing them with materials. Indian materials were greatly modified and adapted in such a way as would appeal to the sensibilities of common people of Japan in general, transmitted through China and Korea.

Further sources

 * Brauns, David. Japanische Märchen und Sagen. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Friedrich. 1885.
 * Dorson, Richard M. "National Characteristics of Japanese Folktales". In: Folklore, Nationalism and Politics. Edited by Felix J. Oinas. Indiana University Folklore Institute Monograph Series, Vol. 30. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1978. pp. 147–162.
 * Dorson, Richard M. Journal of the American Oriental Society 95, no. 3 (1975): 512–14. Accessed July 1, 2020..
 * , Article under densetsu (伝説), by Keigo Seki (ja:関敬吾)
 * James, Grace; Goble, Warwick, III. Green Willow and other Japanese fairy tales. London: Macmillan and Co. 1910.
 * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Recent Collections of Japanese Folk Tales". In: The Journal of Asian Studies 31, no. 4 (1972): 911–914. Accessed July 1, 2020..
 * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Religious Concepts in the Japanese Folk Tale". In: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1, no. 1 (1974): 73–101. Accessed July 1, 2020..
 * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Japan's Folk Tale Boom". In: Journal of Japanese Studies 4, no. 1 (1978): 215–24. Accessed July 25, 2021. doi:10.2307/132081.
 * Mulhern, Chieko Irie and Mayer, Fanny Hagin. “Ancient Tales in Modern Japan: An Anthology of Japanese Folk Tales” (1986).
 * Nakawaki Hatsue. "Japanese Heroine Tales and the Significance of Storytelling in Contemporary Society". In: Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Adaptations across Cultures. Edited by Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2020. pp. 139–168. ISBN 978-0-8143-4537-5.
 * Rasch, Carsten: TALES OF OLD JAPAN FAIRY TALE - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES - MYTHOLOGY: INTRODUCTION IN THE JAPANESE LITERATURE OF THE GENRE OF FAIRY TALES - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES AND MYTHOLOGY, Hamburg. 2015.
 * Seki, Keigo. "Types of Japanese Folktales". In: Asian Folklore Studies 25 (1966): 1–220..
 * Seki, Keigo. "Types of Japanese Folktales". In: Asian Folklore Studies 25 (1966): 1–220..

title: Japanese folktales


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Kensal Green Cemetery

Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick Carden. The cemetery opened in 1833 and comprises 72 acre of grounds, including two conservation areas, adjoining a canal. The cemetery is home to at least 33 species of bird and other wildlife. This distinctive cemetery has memorials ranging from large mausoleums housing the rich and famous to many distinctive smaller graves and includes special areas dedicated to the very young. It has three chapels and serves all faiths. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London.

The cemetery was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem "The Rolling English Road" from his book The Flying Inn:

Despite its Grecian-style buildings, the cemetery is primarily Gothic in character, due to the high number of private Gothic monuments. Due to this atmosphere, the cemetery was the chosen location of several scenes in movies, notably in Theatre of Blood.

The cemetery is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It remains in use.

Location
The cemetery is in both the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. Its main entrance is on Harrow Road (west of where Ladbroke Grove and Chamberlayne Road meet). Its other entrance, Alma Place (the West Gate, almost opposite Greyhound Road) is also on the north side. Alma Place leads to the West London Crematorium (whose owner and operator is the same) and St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, which are in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The cemetery lies between Harrow Road and the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal to the south which has long been separated by a wall.

A set of defunct gates is set in the southern wall which adjoins the canal where barges took a proportion of earth from excavating graves and occasionally coffins carried by barge were unloaded.

Establishment and design
George Frederick Carden had failed with an earlier attempt to establish a British equivalent to Paris's Père Lachaise Cemetery in 1825, but a new committee established in February 1830, including Andrew Spottiswoode, MP for Saltash, sculptor Robert William Sievier, banker Sir John Dean Paul, Charles Broughton Bowman (first committee secretary), and architects Thomas Willson (who had previously proposed an ambitious Metropolitan Sepulchre project) and Augustus Charles Pugin, gained more financial, political and public support to fund the "General Cemetery Company". Public meetings were held in June and July 1830 at the Freemasons' Tavern, and George Carden was elected treasurer.

Paul, a partner in the London banking firm of Strahan, Paul, Paul and Bates, found and conditionally purchased the 54 acres of land at Kensal Green for £9,500. Paul and Carden were already embroiled in a dispute regarding the design of the cemetery, where Paul favoured the Grecian style and Carden the Gothic style. A succession of architects were contemplated, including Benjamin Wyatt (who declined), Charles Fowler (proposal not taken up), Francis Goodwin, Willson, and a Mr Lidell, a pupil of John Nash, before an architectural competition was launched in November 1831. This attracted 46 entrants, and in March 1832 the premium was awarded, despite some opposition, for a Gothic Revival design by Henry Edward Kendall; this decision was eventually overturned.

On 11 July 1832, the Act of Parliament establishing a "General Cemetery Company for the interment of the Dead in the Neighbourhood of the Metropolis" gained Royal Assent. The Act authorised it to raise up to £45,000 in shares, buy up to 80 acres of land and build a cemetery and a Church of England chapel. Company directors appointed after the Bill received Royal Assent asserted their control and preference for a different style. One of the competition judges and a company shareholder, John Griffith of Finbury, who had previously produced working drawings for a boundary wall, ultimately designed the cemetery's two chapels and the main gateway and 15,000 trees were supplied and planted by Hugh Ronalds from his nursery in Brentford. Founded as the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, the cemetery was the first of the "Magnificent Seven" garden-style cemeteries in London. It was consecrated on 24 January 1833 by Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London, receiving its first funeral the same month.

In the early 1850s, after a series of cholera epidemics in London caused an examination of London's burial facilities, health commissioner Edwin Chadwick proposed the closure of all existing burial grounds in the vicinity of London other than the privately owned Kensal Green Cemetery, north-west of the city, which was to be nationalised and greatly enlarged to provide a single burial ground for west London. (A large tract of land on the Thames around 9 mi south-east of London in Abbey Wood was to become a single burial ground for east London. ) The Treasury was sceptical that Chadwick's scheme would ever be financially viable, and it was widely unpopular. Although the  (13 & 14 Vict. c. 52) authorised the scheme, it was abandoned in 1852.

Layout
The overall layout is on an east–west axis, with a central path leading to a raised chapel toward the west. The entrance is to the north-east and the largest monuments line the central path to the chapel.

The Church of England was allotted 39 acres and the remaining 15, clearly separated, acres were given over to Dissenters, a distinction deemed crucial at the time. Originally there was a division between the Dissenters' part of the cemetery and the Anglican section. This took the form of a "sunk fence" from the canal to the gate piers on the path. There were also decorative iron gates. The small area designated for non-Anglican burials is approximately oval in shape and was formerly made prominent by a wider central axis path that terminated with the neo-classical chapel with curved colonnades. The Anglican Chapel dominates the western section of the cemetery, being raised on a terrace beneath that is an extensive catacomb; there is a hydraulic catafalque for lowering coffins into the catacomb.

It is still in operation today; burials and cremations take place daily, although cremations are now more common than interments. The cemetery is still run by the General Cemetery Company under its original Act of Parliament. This mandates that bodies there may not be exhumed and cremated or the land sold for development. Once the cemetery has exhausted all its interment space and can no longer function as a cemetery, the mandate requires that it shall remain a memorial park. The General Cemetery Company constructed and runs the West London Crematorium within the grounds of the cemetery.

While borrowing from the ideals established at Père Lachaise some years before, Kensal Green Cemetery contributed to the design and management basis for many cemetery projects throughout the British Empire of the time. In Australia, for example, the Necropolis at Rookwood (1868) and Waverley Cemetery (1877), both in Sydney, are noted for their use of the "gardenesque" landscape qualities and importantly self-sustaining management structures championed by the General Cemetery Company.

The cemetery is the burial site of approximately 250,000 individuals in over 65,000 graves, including upward of 500 members of the British nobility and 970 people listed in the Dictionary of National Biography. Many monuments, particularly the larger ones, lean precariously as they have settled over time on the underlying London clay.

Notable structures
Many buildings and structures within Kensal Green are listed.

The Anglican Chapel is listed Grade I, while the Dissenters' Chapel, Kensal Green is listed Grade II* and the colonnade/catacomb and perimeter walls and railings are listed Grade II. Of the many tombs, memorials and mausoleums, eight are listed Grade II*, while The Reformers' Memorial is listed Grade II. The Tomb of Charles Spencer Ricketts is listed Grade II* and was designed by William Burges.

Anglican Chapel
The Anglican Chapel is at the centre of the cemetery, and contains several tombs. The chapel was damaged during the Second World War but was restored in 1954. Under the chapel is a catacomb, one of the few in London. The catacomb is currently not maintained but can be visited as part of a guided tour. It still has a working coffin-lift or catafalque, restored by The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery in 1997.

Dissenters' Chapel
Situated in the eastern corner of the cemetery this Greek Revival structure was for the use of all non-Anglican denominations and of non-believers. Only part of the cemetery was consecrated, and Dissenters could opt to be buried in the non-consecrated areas following a service here. The cemetery became favoured by nonconformists, free-thinkers, non-Christians and atheists, and thus this chapel became popular. The Dissenters' Chapel had become derelict and partly roofless, so in 1995 was leased to the Historic Chapels Trust who undertook £447,000 of restoration. The chapel currently serves as the office of The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, but is also available for funeral services.

Reformers' Memorial
The Reformers' Memorial was erected in 1885. It was erected at the instigation of Joseph Corfield "to the memory of men and women who have generously given their time and means to improve the conditions and enlarge the happiness of all classes of society". The monument has lists of names of reformers and radicals on its north and east sides (together with further names added in 1907 by Emma Corfield). It is paired with the Robert Owen memorial, and a second instance of a non-funerary memorial in the cemetery's nonconformist section.

The memorial was amended to include Lloyd Jones to recognise his contribution.

"THIS MEMORIAL IS RAISED AS A TOKEN OF REGARD TO THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHOSE NAMES IT BEARS BY JOSEPH W. CORFIELD, AUGUST 1895."

"THE REFORMERS' MEMORIAL

ERECTED TO THE GLORY OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE GENEROUSLY GIVEN THEIR TIME AND MEANS TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS AND ENHANCE THE HAPPINESS OF ALL CLASSES OF SOCIETY. THEY HAVE FELT THAT A FAR HAPPIER AND MORE PROSPEROUS LIFE IS WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL MEN, AND THEY HAVE EARNESTLY SOUGHT TO REALIZE IT. THE OLD BRUTAL LAWS OF IMPRISONMENT FOR FREE PRINTING HAVE BEEN SWEPT AWAY AND THE RIGHT OF SELECTING OUR OWN LAW MAKERS HAS BEEN GAINED MAINLY BY THEIR EFFORTS. THE EXERCISE OF THESE RIGHTS WILL GIVE THE PEOPLE AN INTEREST IN THE LAWS THAT GOVERN THEM, AND WILL MAKE THEM BETTER MEN AND BETTER CITIZENS."

The names of over seventy people  are inscribed  on the monument. These are, in order shown on the monument:
 * FRONT FACE (EAST): Robert Owen (New Lanark), John Bellers, Robert Dale Owen, Abraham Combe, Joseph Lancaster, William Thompson, John Minter Morgan, William Pare, William Galpin, Henry Travis MD, Alex Campbell, James Rigby, W. D. Saull, Julian Hibbert, Rev. Charles Kingsley, Lady Noel Byron, Frances Wright, Thomas Spence, Allan Davenport, Mary Hennell, Francis Place, Harriet Martineau, George Odger, Lloyd Jones
 * SOUTH FACE: Elizabeth Fry, Sarah Martin, Mary Carpenter, Benjamin Flower, Henry Fawcett, Barbara Bodichon, Maria Grey, Arnold Toynbee, W. K. Clifford, Edward T. Craig, C. Dobson Collet, Charles Bradlaugh, Richard Congreve, William Morris, John Ruskin, F. Power Cobbe, Herbert Spencer, Wathen M.W. Call, Francis Newman, Hodgson Pratt, Lydia Becker, Josephine Butler, Anna Swanwick, C. Jacob Holyoake, J. Kells Ingram
 * NORTH FACE: Joseph Priestley, Thomas Paine, William Hone, John Stuart Mill, Major Cartwright, Richard Carlile, William Lovett, William Carpenter, Henry Hetherington, John Frost, William Cobbett, W. J. Fox, Richard Moore, William Howitt, Samuel Bamford, Henry Hunt, George Thompson, David Williams, Thomas Wooller, Ebenezer Elliott, Ernest Jones, Alex Macdonald, Richard Cobden, Robert Cooper.

The entry for Robert Owen reads:

The cenotaph to Robert Owen, who was buried in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, is fittingly at the side of the Reformers' Memorial.

"ROBERT OWEN PHILANTHROPIST BORN MAY 14TH. 1771. DIED NOVR. 17TH. 1858."

"1879 ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION IN MEMORY OF ROBERT OWEN OF NEW LANARK, BORN AT NEWTOWN, N. WALES 1771. HE DIED AND WAS BURIED AT THE SAME PLACE 1858, AGED 87 YEARS. ––––––––––––– HE ORIGINATED AND ORGANIZED INFANT SCHOOLS, HE SECURED A REDUCTION OF THE HOURS OF LABOUR FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN FACTORIES. HE WAS A LIBERAL SUPPORTER OF THE EARLY EFFORTS IN FAVOUR OF NATIONAL EDUCATION AND LABOURED TO PROMOTE INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. HE WAS ONE OF THE FOREMOST ENGLISHMEN [sic ] WHO TAUGHT MEN TO ASPIRE TO A HIGHER SOCIAL STATE BY RECONCILING THE INTERESTS OF CAPITAL AND LABOUR. HE SPENT HIS LIFE AND A LARGE FORTUNE IN SEEKING TO IMPROVE HIS FELLOW MEN BY GIVING THEM EDUCATION, SELF-RELIANCE AND MORE WORTH.
 * HIS LIFE WAS SANCTIFIED BY HUMAN AFFECTION AND LOFTY EFFORT.
 * J. W. CORFIELD"

"MR. OWEN'S WRITINGS ––––––––––––––––– REPORT TO THE COUNTY OF LANARK. NEW VIEWS OF SOCIETY. TWELVE LECTURES. LECTURES ON MARRIAGE. LECTURES ON A NEW STATE OF SOCIETY. THE BOOK OF THE NEW MORAL WORLD. SIX LECTURES AT MANCHESTER. MANIFESTO OF ROBERT OWEN. SELF SUPPORTING HOME COLONIES. LETTERS TO THE HUMAN RACE. REVOLUTION IN MIND AND PRACTICE. ROBERT OWEN'S JOURNAL. LIFE OF ROBERT OWEN."

The memorial is listed as grade II.

Catacombs
The cemetery has three catacombs for the deposit of lead-sealed, triple-shelled coffins and cremated remains. Catacomb A, beneath the North Terrace Colonnade is now sealed. Catacomb Z, beneath the Dissenters' Chapel at the eastern end of the cemetery, suffered significant bomb damage during World War II, and is also closed to further deposits. Catacomb B, beneath the Anglican Chapel in the centre of the cemetery, has space for some 4,000 deposits, and still offers both private loculi and shelves or vaults for family groups. The catacomb extends under the entire footprint of the chapel and its colonnades. There are six aisles, within which each vault is numbered, running consecutively to number 216 at the south-western end of aisle 6.

Deposit within the catacombs of Kensal Green has always been more expensive and prestigious than burial in a simple plot in the grounds of the cemetery, although less costly than a brick-lined grave or mausoleum. Without the further expense and responsibility of a monument above the grave, the catacombs have afforded a secure, dignified and exclusive resting place for the well-to-do, particularly the unmarried, the childless and young children of those without family plots or mausolea elsewhere.

War graves
The cemetery contains the graves of 473 Commonwealth service personnel of the First World War—half of whom form a war graves plot in the south-west corner, the remainder in small groups or individual graves scattered throughout the grounds—and 51 of the Second who are all dispersed. In the First World War plot, at Section 213, a Screen Wall memorial lists casualties of both world wars whose graves could not be marked by headstones, besides five Second World War servicemen who were cremated at Kensal Green (also known as West London) Crematorium. The highest-ranking person buried here who is commemorated by the CWGC is General Sir Charles Douglas (1850–1914), Chief of the Imperial General Staff in early months of the First World War.

Notable burials

 * Henry Ainley (1879–1945), actor
 * Clara Vestris Webster (1821- 1844), bailarina
 * Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882), author
 * Thomas Allom (1804–1872), artist and architect
 * Frederick Scott Archer (1813–1857), sculptor, photographer. Inventor of the Collodion process
 * Charles Phillip Brown (1798–1884), an Englishman known for writing the first Telugu dictionary and for his contributions toward the Telugu language and Andhra people
 * George Percy Badger (1815–1888), English Anglican missionary and scholar of oriental studies
 * Betsy Balcombe (1802–1871), as a young girl, a close friend and confidante of Napoleon Bonaparte during his imprisonment on St. Helena Island
 * Michael William Balfe (1808–1870), composer
 * Frederick Settle Barff (1822–1866), chemist, inventor of Bower–Barff process
 * James Barry (1795–1865), surgeon
 * George Birkbeck (1776–1841), doctor, academic and adult education pioneer
 * Suzanne Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans (1921–2010), writer and painter
 * William Behnes (1795–1864), sculptor
 * Julius Benedict (1804–1885), composer
 * Maria Björnson (1949–2002), theatre designer
 * Charles Blondin (1824–1897), acrobat, tightrope-walker
 * Sir George Bowen (1821–1899), colonial administrator and 9th Governor of Hong Kong
 * Diamantina, Lady Bowen (c. 1832/1833 – 1893), grand dame
 * John Braham (1774–1856), singer
 * George Bridgetower (1782–1860), West Indian-Polish violin virtuoso and friend of Beethoven
 * Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795–1840), chess master
 * Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo (1788–1845)
 * Samuel George Bonham (1803–1863), 1st Baronet
 * J. Lewis Bonhote (1875–1922), zoologist, ornithologist and writer
 * Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), engineer, son of Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia Kingdom (also buried here)
 * Marc Isambard Brunel (1769–1849), engineer, father of Isambard
 * William Burn, eminent Scottish architect (1789–1870)
 * Pete Burns, lead singer of Dead or Alive (1959–2016)
 * Peter Burrowes (1753–1841) Irish politician
 * Decimus Burton (1800–1881), architect
 * Sir Augustus Wall Callcott (1779–1844), painter
 * Lady Maria Callcott (1785–1842), travel writer
 * George Frederick Carden (1798–1874), founder of the cemetery
 * John Edward Carew (1785–1868), sculptor
 * Anthony Carlisle (1768–1840), surgeon and scientist
 * Sir Ernest Cassel (1852–1921), merchant banker
 * John Hobart Caunter (1792–1851), writer and clergyman
 * William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (1800–1879), landowner and eccentric
 * Frederic Chapman (1823–1895), publisher
 * Marigold Frances Churchill, daughter of Sir Winston and Lady Clementine Churchill, who died from a fever in 1921 at age three (the monument by Eric Gill was listed Grade II in 2001). In 2019 the Churchill family acted on a long-held desire to reunite Marigold's remains with the rest of her family in Bladon churchyard. The empty grave and monument will remain at Kensal Green.
 * Henry Savile Clarke (1841–1893), dramatist and critic
 * Thomas John Cochrane (Sir) (1789–1872) Cemetery plot number 21777, 1st governor of Newfoundland 1825–34, Member of Parliament for Ipswich 1839–41, Admiral of the fleet 1865–72
 * Wilkie Collins (1824–1889), author
 * James Combe (d. 1867), engineer of Temple Works, Leeds
 * Joshua Compston (1970–1996), curator
 * Montague Corry, 1st Baron Rowton (1838–1903), secretary to Disraeli and philanthropic founder of Rowton Houses
 * Sir Michael Costa (1808–1884), conductor and composer
 * Anne Crawford (1920–1956), actress
 * Rev John Cumming (1807–1881), author
 * UK Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI, archaeologist, aide-de-camp to Governor General Lord Aukland of India, executive engineer to the king of Oudh (India), chief engineer of Burma, Colonel of the Royal Engineers.
 * James Dark (1795–1871), proprietor of Lord's Cricket Ground
 * Philmore 'Boots' Davidson (1928–1993) Trinidadian musician. Introduced the steel band to Britain
 * Admiral Ross Donnelly (1761–1840)
 * John Doubleday (about 1798–1856), restorer at the British Museum who reassembled the Portland Vase
 * Andrew Ducrow (1793–1842), circus performer and horse-rider
 * Willie Edouin (1841–1908), comedian, actor and theatre manager
 * Sir George Elliot (1784–1863), naval officer
 * John Epps (1805–1869), phrenologist
 * John Edward Errington (1806–1862) civil engineer
 * Edward Francis Fitzwilliam (1824–1857), composer
 * Fanny Fitzwilliam (1801–1854), actress, singer and theatre manager
 * Ann Foster (1827–1882), widow of John Foster of Hobart, Member of the Tasmanian Legislative Assembly. Formerly Ann Dinham, she was transported to Tasmania in 1852 and was one of few Australian convicts to return to her native land (Grave No. 28305)
 * Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle (1778–1865), Franco-English Victorian painter
 * Erich Fried (1921–1988), Austrian poet and essayist
 * Henry Gauntlett (1810–1876), composer
 * John Gibson (1817–1892), architect. RIBA Gold Medal recipient 1890
 * Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert (1785–1853)
 * George Bellas Greenough (1778–1855), geologist
 * George Grossmith (1847–1912), actor and comedian
 * Philip Hardwick (1792–1870), architect
 * Philip Charles Hardwick (1822–1892), architect
 * Fairlie Harmar Viscountess Harbeton RA (1876–1945) painter and suffragette
 * Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton (1817–1907)
 * Catherine Hayes (1818–1861), opera singer
 * Henry Herman (1832–1894), English dramatist and novelist
 * Rev Ridley Herschell (1807–1864)
 * Major General Sir John Hills FRSE CB KCB (1834–1902)
 * Thomas Hood (1799–1845), poet, humorist and journalist
 * Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham (1837–1898)
 * Sir Neville Howse (1863–1930), the first Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, and one of 13 holders of the award buried in this cemetery
 * Joseph Hume (1777–1855), MP and political campaigner
 * James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784–1859), Romantic critic, essayist and poet
 * Austen Hurgon (1862–1942), theatrical director
 * Frank Linsly James (1851–1890), exhumed in 1917 and re-interred in the family plot at West Dean, West Sussex
 * Sir Leander Starr Jameson (1853–1917), former Prime Minister of Cape Colony and architect of the Jameson Raid – initially buried in a vault here, later reburied in Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe
 * Lionel Johnson (1867–1902), poet, member of the Rhymer's Club and an influence on W. B. Yeats
 * Charles Kemble (1775–1854), actor and theatre manager
 * Fanny Kemble (1809–1893), famous British actress and author
 * Halina Korn (1902–1978), Polish painter and sculptor
 * Marian Kukiel (1885–1972), Polish General and Minister for War in exile during World War II
 * Michael Lane (1802–1868), civil engineer
 * William Garrett Lewis (b. before 1834; d. 1885) pastor of Westbourne Grove Church
 * Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957), painter and author, co-founder of the Vorticist movement
 * Joseph Locke (1805–1860), civil engineer
 * John St. John Long (1798–1834), quack doctor
 * John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843), Scottish botanist and writer on cemeteries
 * John Graham Lough (1789–1876), sculptor
 * Sir John Louis, 2nd Baronet (1785–1863)
 * Sir Andrew Lusk, 1st Baronet (1810–1909) Lord Mayor of London 1873–74
 * John Robinson McClean (1817–1873), politician
 * Vice Admiral Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure CB (1807–1873) discoverer of the Northwest Passage 1850–53Robert McClure grave.jpg
 * Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835), chess master
 * Richard Graves MacDonnell (1814–1881), colonial administrator and 6th Governor of Hong Kong
 * Sir James McGrigor (1771–1858), Scottish botanist
 * Sir Donald Friell McLeod (1810–1872)
 * William Macready (1793–1873), actor
 * Sir George Makins (1853–1933), surgeon
 * Edward Maltby (1770–1859), bishop of Durham
 * Florence Marryat (1833–1899), novelist, editor, actress and playwright
 * Kitty Melrose (1883–1912), actress
 * Archibald Menzies (1754–1842), botanist, surgeon
 * Ras Andargachew Messai (1902–1981), Ethiopian ruler
 * Kate Meyrick (1875–1933), night club owner
 * John Maddison Morton (1811–1891), playwright
 * John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877), American historian
 * Billy Murdoch (1854–1911), Australian cricket captain
 * John Trivett Nettleship (1841–1902), painter and author
 * Feargus O'Connor (1796–1855), MP, Chartist Leader and social reformer
 * Patrick O'Connell (1887–1959), Footballer with Belfast Celtic, captain of Ireland and Manchester United (1914), Manager of Barcelona FC during Spanish Civil War
 * Admiral Robert Otway (1773–1846)
 * Robert Owen (cenotaph only) (1771–1858), industrialist and major social reformer
 * John Thomas Perceval (1803–1876), army officer, writer and campaigner
 * Jacob Perkins (1766–1849), American inventor
 * George Perry (1793–1862), composer
 * Harold Pinter (1930–2008), playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, poet and political activist
 * Frederic Hervey Foster Quin (1799–1878), physician
 * Sir Terence Rattigan (1911–1977), playwright
 * Emidio Recchioni (1864–1933), Italian anarchist and businessman
 * Robert Reece (1838–1891), comic playwright and librettist
 * Emil Reich (1854–1910), Austro-Hungarian-born historian
 * John Rennie the Younger (1794–1874) civil engineer
 * Dwarkanath Tagore (1794–1846), Bengali industrialist and benefactor
 * John Wigham Richardson (1837–1908), shipbuilder
 * Charles Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee (1838–1906), politician, former Chancellor of Exchequer
 * Henry Sandham (1842–1910), artist
 * Eileen Sharp (1900 –1958), singer and actress
 * Byam Shaw (1872–1919), artist
 * John Shaw Jr. (1803–1870), architect and brother-in-law of Philip Hardwick listed above
 * Sir William Siemens (1823–1883), industrialist
 * Robert William Sievier (1794–1865), sculptor (also member of Cemetery board)
 * John Benjamin Smith (1794–1879), MP
 * John Mark Frederick Smith (1790–1874), British Army general
 * William Henry Smith (1792–1865), businessman
 * Alexis Soyer (1810–1858), Chef and Humanitarian.
 * Howard Staunton (1810–1874), prominent chess player
 * John McDouall Stuart (1815–1866), explorer in Australia
 * William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), writer
 * Bert Thomas (1883–1966), cartoonist
 * Lydia Thompson (1838–1908), dancer and actress
 * Thérèse Tietjens (1831–1877), opera singer
 * Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal (1776–1846), Solicitor General and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
 * Steve Peregrin Took (1949–1980), English musician and songwriter (best known as a founding member of Tyrannosaurus Rex)
 * Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), novelist
 * Sir Thomas Troubridge, 3rd Baronet (1815–1867), British army officer
 * J. Stuart Russell (1816–1895), theologian and author
 * James Malcolm Rymer (1814–1884), writer
 * William Vincent Wallace (1812–1865), composer
 * Thomas Wakley (1795–1862), surgeon, campaigner and founder of The Lancet
 * John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), artist
 * John Whichcord Jr. (1823–1885), architect
 * Jane Williams (1798–1884), subject of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
 * Alfred Wigan (1814–1878), actor-manager
 * William Williams (1788–1865), radical MP
 * Walter Clopton Wingfield (1833–1912), pioneer of lawn tennis

The cemetery is remarkable for the number of Fellows of the Royal Society who are buried there, of whom the following is a small sample:
 * Charles Babbage FRS (1816) (1791–1871), mathematician and computer scientist
 * George Bishop FRS (1848)
 * William John Broderip FRS (1828)
 * Robert Brown FRS (1839) (1773–1858), botanist, discoverer of Brownian motion
 * Samuel Hawksley Burbury FRS (1890)
 * George Busk FRS (1850) (1807–1886), naval surgeon, zoologist and palaeontologist
 * Alexander John Ellis FRS (1864)
 * Hugh Falconer FRS (1845) (1808–1865), naturalist
 * David Forbes FRS (1858), mineralogist
 * Thomas Galloway FRS (1848)
 * John Hall Gladstone FRS (1853)
 * Joseph Glynn FRS (1838)
 * John Gould FRS (1843)
 * William Robert Grove Sir, FRS (1847)
 * Edmond Herbert Grove-Hills FRS (1911)
 * Frank McClean FRS (1895)
 * George Newport FRS (1846)
 * Reverend Baden Powell, FRS (1824) father of Robert and Agnes Baden-Powell
 * Joseph Sabine FRS (1799)
 * George James Symons FRS (1879)
 * Edward Troughton FRS (1810)
 * Edward Turner FRS (1830), chemist
 * Nathaniel Wallich FRS (1829)
 * Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS FRSE (1802–1875) inventor of the Wheatstone bridge

Royal burials

 * British
 * Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex and son of King George III
 * Princess Sophia, sister of Prince Augustus Frederick and daughter of King George III
 * Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of George III and commander-in-chief of the British Army
 * Overseas
 * Maharani Jind Kaur, of the Sikh Empire, mother of the last Punjabi Maharaja Duleep Singh – temporarily deposited in the catacomb below the Dissenters' Chapel following her death in exile in 1863 before her body was allowed to return to the Punjab for cremation. Following the discovery of a slab commemorating Jind Kaur (now in the Ancient House Museum, Thetford), a memorial was erected here in 2009.

Notable cremations

 * Major Herbert James (1888–1958), VC winner at Gallipoli, First World War.
 * Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982), actress (most of her ashes were scattered around the islet of Dannholmen off the fishing village of Fjällbacka on the west coast of Sweden where she spent most summers from 1958 to her death in 1982, with the remainder of her ashes buried at Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm, Sweden next to her parents).
 * Freddie Mercury (1946–1991), singer in the rock band Queen, is commemorated by a small plinth under his birth name, Farrokh Bulsara, near which his ashes, the exact whereabouts of which are currently unknown, are traditionally held to be buried.
 * Sir Anthony Nutting (1920–1999), former diplomat and Conservative MP.
 * Dame Sarah Oram (1860-1946), senior military nurse.
 * Alan Rickman (1946–2016), actor and director.
 * Pete Burns (1959–2016), Singer–songwriter and television personality.
 * Christine Keeler (1942–2017), model and showgirl.
 * Gary Rhodes (1960–2019), chef.

Preservation, conservation and restoration
Although the cemetery is owned and run by the General Cemetery Company, The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery is a charitable organisation whose purpose is the preservation, conservation and restoration for the public benefit of Kensal Green Cemetery. The charity organises tours and other events in the cemetery and has published books about the cemetery. The office of the Friends is in the Dissenters Chapel. The Friends group is a member of The National Federation of Cemetery Friends.

title: Kensal Green Cemetery


text:
Thackeray (surname)

Thackeray is an English surname, most notably borne by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811−1863), British novelist, author and illustrator. Other notable people with this surname include the following:

Thackeray family of India

 * Thackeray family, an Indian political family
 * Aaditya Thackeray (born 1990), Indian politician
 * Bal Thackeray (1926−2012), Indian politician
 * Prabodhankar Thackeray, penname of Keshav Sitaram Thackeray (1885–1973), Indian social reformer
 * Raj Thackeray (born 1968), Indian politician
 * Rashmi Thackeray, Indian journalist
 * Uddhav Thackeray (born 1960), Indian politician

Other people with the name

 * A. David Thackeray (1910–1978), astronomer, after whom Thackeray's Globules in the IC 2944 nebula are named
 * Andy Thackeray (born 1968), English footballer
 * Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (1837–1919), English writer, the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray
 * Anthony Thackeray (born 1986), English rugby league footballer
 * David Thackeray (footballer) (1902-?), Scottish footballer
 * Edward Thackeray (1836–1927), recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * Francis Thackeray (1793–1842), Church of England clergyman and author
 * Fred Thackeray (1877–unknown), English footballer
 * Frederick Thackeray (1816–1892), English cricketer and clergyman
 * Frederick Rennell Thackeray (1775–1860), senior British Army officer
 * George Thackeray (1806–1875), English cricketer
 * Henry St. John Thackeray (1869–1930), British bible scholar
 * Jim Thackeray (1881–1968), English footballer
 * John Richard Thackeray (1772-1846), English clergyman
 * Lance Thackeray (1869–1916), English illustrator
 * Merv Thackeray (1925–2014), Australian politician
 * Michael M. Thackeray (fl. from 1973), South African chemist and battery materials researcher
 * Peter Thackeray (born 1950), Kenyan-born English cricketer
 * Smita Thackeray (fl. from 1997), Indian social activist and film producer
 * St John Thackeray (1778–1824), a British East India Company collector and political agent
 * Thomas Thackeray (1693–1760), English clergyman and headmaster

Fictional characters

 * Mark Thackeray, a fictional character in the 1967 film To Sir, with Love

title: Thackeray (surname)


text:
Trollope

The name Trollope is derived from the place-name Troughburn, in Northumberland, England, originally Trolhop, Norse for "troll valley". The earliest recorded use of the surname is John Andrew Trolope (1427–1461) who lived in Thornlaw, Co. Durham and Sir Andrew Trollope (died 1461) who was an English soldier during the later stages of the Hundred Years' War and at the time of the Wars of the Roses.

Spelling variations of this family name include Trollop, Trollope, Trolloop, Trollup, Trollupe, and others.

Notable Trollopes include:

 * Andrew Trollope (died 1461), English professional soldier
 * Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), English novelist and civil servant
 * Arthur William Trollope (1768–1827), English cleric, headmaster of Christ's Hospital
 * Edward Trollope (1817–1893), English antiquary and Anglican Bishop of Nottingham
 * Frances Eleanor Trollope (1835–1913), English novelist, second wife of Thomas Adolphus Trollope
 * Frances Milton Trollope (1780–1863), English novelist, mother of Thomas Adolphus Trollope and Anthony Trollope
 * Henry Trollope (1756–1839), Royal Navy admiral
 * Joanna Trollope (born 1943), English novelist
 * John Trollope, 1st Baron Kesteven (1800–1874), President of the English Poor Law Board
 * John Trollope (footballer) (born 1944), English association football player
 * John Lightfoot Trollope (1897–1958), British First World War flying ace
 * Mark Trollope (1862–1930), Anglican Bishop in Korea
 * Paul Trollope (born 1972), English football coach and former professional footballer
 * Robert Trollope, 17th-century English architect
 * Rowan Trollope (born 1972), Canadian business administrator, former Group President, Symantec Corporation
 * Theodosia Trollope (1816–1865), English poet, translator and writer, first wife of Thomas Adolphus Trollope
 * Thomas Adolphus Trollope (1810–1892), English writer

title: Trollope


text:
Talk:Kensal Green Cemetery

Query and responses
"Kensal Green is the oldest English cemetery still in operation"

- can this really be right? I see that from the Friends' website (link on article page) it is the oldest of the 7 big out-of-town London cemeteries of the 1830s(ish) on - but is that the same thing? Does the above statement depend on a particular definition of "cemetery", which I am not understanding? Or what?? All discussion gratefully read! Nevilley 23:10 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

 * There is a cemetery at the bottom of my street around an 11th century church. There are graves in it from last year -- Tarquin 23:12 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

 * well yep I was thinking along those lines too. Unless the person who wrote that was using "cemetery" in a specific sense, i.e. not a churchyard? It sounds unlikely, but I thought I would wait for a response before editing. It will certainly be the oldest of the London 7 still in use (I did a gig there a few years ago!), maybe the oldest of that whole type, but if you use "cemetery" to mean "a place for burying dead people" (which I think is inter alia more or less what the wiki definitions says) then no, it can't possibly be right! :) Nevilley 23:15 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

 * PS we ought to get this right as it is clearly a grave matter. Nevilley 23:16 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

 * OK I've done it. Views anyone??? Nevilley 23:40 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

A gig...? Are you a vicar or a member of a goth rock band? -- Tarquin 23:23 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)
 * Heheh. A trumpet player. Someone rang me out of the blue, her husband had died, he wanted a tpt at his funeral, would I go and play. I had to stand right at the front, a foot or two away from the coffin, and launch straight into some hairy scary Baroque piece having sat there freezing for ages. Was I nervous. :) Nevilley 12:51 Jan 12, 2003 (UTC)

 * Your assumption is correct. There are many cemeteries in the UK that are older. Kensal Green is the oldest of the Magnificent Seven still in operation. This is not very hard as I believe only Highgate is still in operation. I am relatively sure that Abney Park, Brompton, Nunhead, Tower Hamlets and West Norwood have all stopped interring bodies, I believe West Norwood still does cremations. Although when I was in West Norwood in February 2010, I had the idea that there were a few new graves. Kensal Green and Brompton still have a lot of catacomb space available but it is not a popular form of burial. JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * (Moved above post to bottom of thread for readability)

 * Cremations still occur in West Norwood, and there places for ashes to be interred. It is also still possible to be buried in West Norwood, if there is space still available in a family plot. These were the new burials that you saw. There are currently no new empty plots for sale, although there may be spaces in the catacombs. However, it is more complicated than that. For the last few decades, English law has allowed for burial rights to be extinguished in a local authority cemetery after a number of years - so that the plots can be resold for new burials. This is happening already at the City of London Cemetery, and in some ways this follows the practice in many Continental countries. However, the Magnificent Seven were private companies founded by their own Acts of Parliament which allowed for burials 'in perpetuity'. These Acts were never rescinded, so there is potential for a conflict in law if a private cemetery comes under local authority control, such as happened at West Norwood. West Norwood was the subject of a legal battle in Consistory (Church) Court that found the method of reburial was illegal. However, that judgement related to the method, and not necessarily the principle or reburial. If an acceptable method is found in the future, new burials in old plots may recommence. Ephebi (talk) 17:44, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Remove the list?
There is a category for those interrred at this cemetery. Should we just rely on that, and do away with the list of names? Noisy | Talk 18:25, September 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * after the discussion at Categories for discussion/Log/2007 June 29 (→Burials redux) it would seem best to avoid the listing of names, and instead integrate some of the notables into the text, which can be useful to pick out themes or illustrate the character of the place. You can then rely on the category to mop up the other notables. Ephebi 12:56, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Photos
I have some more photos - will make a commons page soon. Light is not good at this time of year, but the gasometers are lovely. Justinc 00:39, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Lord Baden Powell
B-P is actually buried in Nyeri, Kenya. Chris 20:25, 11 January 2006 (UTC) (a picture can be seen in his monograph: Grave of B-P) JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Chris is right, he lived there in Nyeri from 1939-1941, died there, and is buried there. Rlevse 01:52, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The Reverend Baden Powell is buried in Kensal Green. He was Lord Baden Powell´s father. JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * One of Lord Baden Powell´s relatives, Percy Huxford, died as a Sea Scout in the Leysdown Tragedy, aged only 12. A special memorial was built for these Sea Scouts in Nunhead Cemetery. JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Huxford wasn't a relative, but was named for BP. See and .  Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:09, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Numbers
How are there 250,000 people in 65,000 graves? Are they stacked on top of each other, mostly cremated, or what? Rlevse 13:29, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
 * 65,000 plots - where a plot can hold many bodies or sets of ashes. Ephebi 12:58, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
 * So are they stacking the caskets? One at 6 feet down, another at 3 or 4 feet down, etc? --Ragemanchoo (talk) 11:31, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, pretty much. Burial law is complex, but in general the plot owner can place several bodies in one plot. Dig the first one deep, then lay the next on top... Recent changes to the law are likely to allow plots to be reused in this after a time Ephebi (talk) 23:53, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This is true, although the facts are even worse. Even Kensal Green offered "cheap burials", this meant however that people were buried in communal graves, sometimes ten people on top of each other. Burial law is complex and has changed over the years.JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Cemetery removals???
"It is the only such cemetery established by an act of the British Parliament with a mandate that its bodies may not be exhumed and cremated or the land sold for development." Is this kind of thing common? Its not very common here in the states. --Ragemanchoo (talk) 11:31, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Questions, questions! Its very rare here as well - proposals to the close a churchyard or disturb consecrated ground would have to go to a special hearing here, called a Consistory Court. Ephebi (talk) 00:04, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
 * So moving the cemetery (digging everything up, both costly and ghoulish) basically out of the question? And its basically closed to everything but ash-related internments/scatterings? --Ragemanchoo (talk) 06:05, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Perhaps a few decades ago it might have been possible, as there was rather less respect for historical items. nowadays, while technically not impossible, practically its not feasible if the land has been dedicated in some way as a burial space. Thus the land used by official churchyards and the Magnificent Seven cemeteries are quite literally sacrosanct. There have been instances where ancient unmarked burial areas have been unearthed and cleared to make way way for development if, say, a Roman site or medieval hospital burial ground gets accidentally discovered during the building of a city office block, but this would still require the correct legal process to be gone through. It is interesting to compare approaches across the Atlantic; US archaeologists seem to have had free reign to dig up the burial grounds of the Jamestown Settlement and tourist attraction in Virginia, but when they requested a sample of DNA from the bones of a suspected relative of Captain Bignold who was buried in a UK church this was referred to the appropriate Archbishop's Court. After a long deliberation they agreed to disturb the burials in the vault, but even after four centuries this was controversial and ultimately false as nothing was proven.) Ephebi (talk) 08:26, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This is not entirely true. When it becomes neccessary to clear a graveyard it can be done. In the City of London Cemetery there are a few memorials for bodies that have been moved from graveyards of churches that were demolished. But burial is a very sensitive issue in the UK. In principle when you buy a plot in a Magnificent Seven cemetery, you buy it in perpetuity. Some of the local councils thought this incorrect and cleared away some of the graves that had fallen into disrepair. They were however stopped and fined. They were given the task of tracing the decendants of people in the graves that had been cleared and reimbursing them. The sad thing is that most of the companies that originally operated these cemeteries have all gone bankrupt, although I believe the General Cemetery Company (that operates Kensal Green) is still in operation. The cemeteries have since been severely neglected. It has not been until recently that the "Friends movement" has started cleaning up and restoring these cemeteries, often with the help of English Heritage and the Lottery. It is sad if you go to places like Abney Park or Nunhead, so many beautiful monuments are lost. Brompton was in a sense lucky as it has been the property of the Royal Park Service for a long time but even there quite a few of the monuments are badly defaced.JHvW (talk) 09:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Although this was more acceptable in decades past, I'm not aware of a whole cemetery being cleared in England in the last decade or two . The proposal for the 5th runway at Heathrow requires the demolition of a village church and its churchyard, and this is now one of the objections being loudly cited by protesters. FYI, there are lots of different legal situations to consider here; ancient burial sites, churchyards, and specific cemeteries. A lot of clearances happened under what we would now consider dubious legal circumstances. This was clarified in 1977 when burial "in perpetuity" was redefined in English law as meaning 75 years. I think the example of illegally clearing burials that were made "in perpetuity" that you mentioned is a single case - West Norwood; although it set a precedent, not all aspects of the case are relevant to other cemeteries because it was founded by its own unique Acts, which have not been rescinded although they might contradict other more recent laws.  Ephebi (talk) 10:09, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Moved from article space
Thomas John Cochrain 1789 should read 1689 - 1782 (named just above Royal burials Kensal Green Cemetary (moved by Grim23 ★ 03:33, 22 February 2012 (UTC))

CfD Proposal to delete Burial by place category
It has been proposed here to delete the category that links people to their place of burial. Note that the proposer is recommending the removal of the whole tree of categories, not just the the top level categories listed. Ephebi (talk) 15:38, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Freddy Mercury
Freddy Mercury was cremated at the West London Crematorium which is on the grounds of Kensal Green Cemetery. But where his ashes are can only be speculated. So I have removed his name from the list. 77.167.212.162 (talk) 01:22, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

John Doubleday headstone photo
Is there any chance that it might be possible to obtain a photograph of John Doubleday's headstone? He was a 19th-century restorer at the British Museum, but much of his life is unknown, particularly his year of birth; full details are in footnote 1 of his article, but basically he could have been born anywhere from 1796 to 1800. A photo of his headphone could thus add useful information as well as contributing a nice image to his page. Per Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, Doubleday is buried in plot square 55, plot 12966. It's a bit of an ask, but any help would be very much appreciated. Pinging some users who have contributed photos to this page: Thanks, --Usernameunique (talk) 03:18, 23 April 2018 (UTC)
 * These users are/were living close to it. Maybe one of those is able to help? --Flominator (talk) 10:47, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the suggestion, . Was in town a few days ago and ended up going myself. --Usernameunique (talk) 17:50, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Kensal Green Cemetery


text:
The Nation (Irish newspaper)

The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in the 19th century. The Nation was printed first at 12 Trinity Street, Dublin from 15 October 1842 until 6 January 1844. The paper was afterwards published at 4 D'Olier Street from 13 July 1844, to 28 July 1848, when the issue for the following day was seized and the paper suppressed. It was published again in Middle Abbey Street on its revival in September 1849 until 1900, when it merged with the Irish Weekly Independent.

Background

The founders of The Nation were three young men – two Catholics and one Protestant – who, according to the historian of the newspaper T. F. O'Sullivan, were all "free from the slightest taint of bigotry, and were anxious to unite all creeds and classes for the country's welfare.". They were Charles Gavan Duffy, its first editor; Thomas Davis, and John Blake Dillon. All three were members of Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association, which sought repeal of the 1800 Act of Union between Ireland and Britain; this association would later be known as Young Ireland. The name suggested by Duffy for the paper was The National, but Davis disagreed, suggesting "that the use of an adjective for such a purpose was contrary to the analogies of the English language". He suggested The Nation, which was assented to by all three. "We desired to make Ireland a nation", Duffy wrote, "and the name would be a fitting prelude to the attempt.". In due course and after many other consultations between the founders, the following announcement was made as to the date of publication, the name of the journal, and the contributors:. On the first Saturday in October will be published the first number of a; DUBLIN WEEKLY JOURNAL TO BE CALLED THE NATION, for which the services of the most eminent political writers in the country have been secured. It will be edited by Charles Gavan Duffy, Editor of The Vindicator (Ulster Newspaper), aided by the, following distinguished contributors:— JOHN O'CONNELL, ESQ., M.P.; Thomas Osborne Davis, Esq., Barrister-at-Law; W. J. O'Neill Daunt, Esq., Author of The Green Book, John B. Dillon, Esq., Barrister-at-Law Clarence Mangan, Esq., Author of Anthologia Germanica and Litterae Orientales; The Late Editor of the London Magazine and Charivari, J. C. Fitzgerald, Editor of The True Sun, And others whose names we are not at liberty to publish.

The paper was first published on Saturday 15 October 1842.

The Prospectus of The Nation
In the Prospectus, which was written by Davis with the exception of one sentence, it was stated, The projectors of the NATION have been told that there is no room in Ireland for another Liberal Journal; but they think differently. They believe that since the success of the long and gallant struggle which our fathers maintained against sectarian ascendancy, a NEW MIND has grown up amongst us, which longs to redress other wrongs and achieve other victories; and that this mind has found no adequate expression in the press. The Liberal Journals of Ireland were perhaps never more ably conducted than at this moment; but their tone and spirit are not of the present but the past;—their energies are shackled by old habits, old prejudices, and old divisions; and they do not and cannot keep in the van of the advancing people. The necessities of the country seem to demand a Journal able to aid and organise the new movements going on amongst us—to make their growth deeper, and their fruit 'more racy of the soil'— and, above all, to direct the popular mind and the sympathies of educated men of all parties to the great end of nationality. Such a Journal should be free from the quarrels, the interests, the wrongs, and even the gratitude of the past. It should be free to apply its strength where it deems best— free to praise—free to censure; unshackled by sect or party; able, Irish, and independent. Holding these views, the projectors of the Nation cannot think that a Journal, prepared to undertake this work, will be deemed superfluous; and as they labour, not for themselves but for their country, they are prepared, if they do not find a way open, to try if they cannot make one. Nationality is their first object—a nationality which will not only raise our people from their poverty, by securing to them the blessings of a domestic legislature, but inflame and purify them with a lofty and heroic love of country—a nationality of the spirit as well as the letter—a nationality which may come to be stamped upon our manners, our literature, and our deeds—a nationality which may embrace Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter, Milesian and Cromwellian, the Irishman of a hundred generations, and the stranger who is within our gates; not a nationality which would preclude civil war, but which would establish internal union and external independence—a nationality which would be recognised by the world, and sanctified by wisdom, virtue, and time. As could be seen from the prospectus, as political objectives went, the programme was certain to be of immense assistance to Daniel O'Connell in his efforts to revive the agitation for Repeal, but O'Connell also knew and felt that he was receiving, for the present, a powerful support from them; but he knew also, that they were outside of his influence, and did not implicitly believe that Repeal would be yielded to "agitation"; that they were continually seeking, by their writings, to arouse a military spirit among the people; showing plainly, that while they helped the Repeal Association, they fully expected that the liberties of the country must be fought for in the end: it was in appearance only that they worked in harmony.

John Mitchel joined the staff of The Nation in the autumn of 1845. On Mitchel's frequent trips from Banbridge, Co Down to Dublin, he had come in contact with the Repeal members who gathered about The Nation office and in the spring of 1843 he became a member of the Repeal Association. For the next two years Mitchel wrote political and historical articles and reviews for The Nation. He covered a wide range of subjects, including the Great Famine, on which he contributed some influential articles which attracted significant attention.

Mitchel resigned his position as leader writer on The Nation, he himself wrote years afterwards, because he came to regard as "absolutely necessary a more vigorous policy against the English Government than that which William Smith O'Brien, Charles Gavan Duffy and other Young Ireland leaders were willing to pursue". In 1847, when he severed his connection with The Nation, he wrote, "I had watched the progress of the famine policy of the Government, and could see nothing in it but a machinery, deliberately devised, and skillfully worked, for the entire subjugation of the island—the slaughter of portion of the people, and the pauperization of the rest", and he had therefore "come to the conclusion that the whole system ought to be met with resistance at every point, and the means for this would be extremely simple, namely, a combination among the people to obstruct and render impossible the transport and shipment of Irish provisions; to refuse all aid to its removal; to destroy the highways; to prevent everyone, by intimidation, from daring to bid for grain and cattle if brought to auction under 'distress' (a method of obstruction which put an end to Church tithes before); in short, to offer a passive resistance universally; but occasionally, when opportunity served, to try the steel." To recommend such a course would be extremely hazardous, and was besides in advance of the revolutionary progress made up to that time by Mr. Duffy, the proprietor of The Nation, Mitchel therefore resigned from the journal, and started his own paper, The United Irishman.

Women wrote for the paper, and published under pseudonyms such as Mary (Ellen Mary Patrick Dowling); Speranza (Jane Elgee, Lady Wilde, Oscar Wilde's mother), known universally as "Speranza" of The Nation; and Eva (Mary Eva Kelly, who would marry Kevin Izod O'Doherty). These three were known as the "Three Graces" of ''The Nation. '' Eithne (Marie Thompson), Finola (Elizabeth Willoughby Treacy), Ruby (Rose Kavanagh) and Thomasine (Olivia Knight) were others. In July 1848 Jane Wilde and Margaret Callan assumed editorial control of The Nation during Gavan Duffy's imprisonment in Newgate.

The role played by some of its key figures in the paper in the ill-fated Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 cemented the paper's reputation as the voice of Irish radicalism. Dillon was a central figure in the revolt and was sentenced to death, the sentence later commuted. He fled Ireland, escaping first to France and, eventually, to the United States, where he served the New York Bar.

Its triumvirate of founders followed differing paths. Davis died, aged 30, in 1845. Both Dillon and Duffy became Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Duffy emigrated to Australia where he became premier of the state of Victoria, later being knighted as a Knight Commander of St Michael and St George (KCMG). Dillon died in 1866. His son, John Dillon became leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and his grandson, James Dillon, leader of Fine Gael.

Later political figures associated with the paper included TD Sullivan and JJ Clancy.

Contributors

 * Denis Florence MacCarthy
 * C. P. Meehan
 * William Carleton
 * John Keegan Casey
 * John Mitchel
 * John Kenyon
 * Michael Doheny
 * Thomas D'Arcy McGee
 * Richard Robert Madden
 * John Kells Ingram (author of "The Memory of the Dead")
 * Edward Walsh
 * James Fintan Lalor
 * Thomas Devin Reilly
 * John Edward Pigot
 * Charles Kickham
 * Jane Wilde
 * Richard D'Alton Williams
 * Thomas MacNevin
 * John Cashel Hoey, editor 1849–57.
 * Michael Hogan – "The Bard of Thomond"
 * Hugh Heinrick

title: The Nation (Irish newspaper)