44 Facts About Sada Abe

Sada Abe was a Japanese geisha and prostitute who murdered her lover, Kichizo Ishida, via strangulation on May 18,1936, before cutting off his penis and testicles and carrying them around with her in her kimono.

Sada Abe was the seventh of eight children of Shigeyoshi and Katsu Abe, an upper middle-class family of tatami mat makers in Tokyo's Kanda neighborhood.

Only four of the Abe children survived to adulthood, and of those Sada was the youngest.

Aged 52 at the time of Sada's birth, Shigeyoshi Abe was described by police as "an honest and upright man" who had neither conspicuous vices nor any brushes with the law; some acquaintances reported him to be somewhat self-centered, with a taste for extravagance.

Likewise, Sada Abe's mother had no known legal or moral blemishes on her record.

Sada Abe's mother doted on Sada, who was her youngest surviving child, and allowed her to do as she wished.

Geisha were considered glamorous celebrities at the time, and Sada Abe herself pursued this image by skipping school for her music lessons and wearing stylish make-up.

Sada Abe soon fell in with a group of similarly independent teenagers.

Sada Abe herself claimed that her father made her a geisha as punishment for her promiscuity.

Sada Abe worked for five years in this capacity and eventually contracted syphilis.

Since this meant she would be required to undergo regular physical examinations, just as a legally licensed prostitute would, Sada Abe decided to enter a better-paying profession.

Sada Abe began work as a prostitute in Osaka's famous Tobita brothel district, but soon gained a reputation as a trouble-maker.

Sada Abe stole money from clients and attempted to leave the brothel several times, but was tracked down by the well-organized legal prostitution system.

Sada Abe entered into the prostitution market in Tokyo and while there became a mistress for the first time.

When her father became gravely ill in January 1934, Sada Abe nursed him for ten days until his death.

In October 1934, Sada Abe was arrested in a police raid on the unlicensed brothel at which she was working at the time.

Kasahara was attracted to Sada Abe, finding that she had no debts, and with Sada Abe's agreement, made her his mistress.

Sada Abe set up a house for Abe on December 20,1934, and provided her with an income.

Sada Abe then asked Kasahara to allow her to take another lover, which he refused to do.

Sada Abe was the kind of scum who would then plead with me when I said that we should break up.

Sada Abe soon became romantically involved with a customer at the restaurant, Goro Omiya, a professor and banker who aspired to become a member of the Diet of Japan.

Back in Tokyo, Sada Abe began work as an apprentice at the Yoshidaya restaurant on February 1,1936.

Sada Abe had opened Yoshidaya in Tokyo's Nakano neighborhood in 1920.

When Sada Abe joined his restaurant, Ishida had become known as a womanizer who, by that time, did little in the way of actually running the restaurant, which had become, in fact, managed primarily by his wife.

Not long after Sada Abe began work at Yoshidaya, Ishida began making amorous advances towards her.

Sada Abe said that with Ishida she had come to know true love for the first time in her life, and the thought of Ishida being back with his wife made her intensely jealous.

Just over a week before Ishida's eventual death, Sada Abe began to contemplate his murder.

Ishida and Sada Abe returned to Ogu, where they remained until his death.

Once Sada Abe stopped the strangulation, Ishida's face became distorted, and would not return to its normal appearance.

Sada Abe repeatedly apologized to him, but Omiya, unaware of the murder, assumed that she was apologizing for having taken another lover.

Omiya's career was ruined, and Sada Abe's life was under intense public scrutiny from that point onwards.

On May 19,1936, Sada Abe went shopping and saw a movie.

Sada Abe spent the day writing farewell letters to Omiya, a friend, and Ishida.

Sada Abe planned to commit suicide one week after the murder, and practiced necrophilia.

At 4:00 in the afternoon, police detectives, suspicious of the alias under which Sada Abe had registered, came to her room.

On December 21,1936, Sada Abe was convicted of murder and mutilation of a corpse.

Sada Abe was confined in Tochigi women's penitentiary, where she was prisoner No 11.

Sada Abe's sentence was commuted on November 10,1940, on the occasion of the 2,600th anniversary celebrations of the mythical founding of Japan, when Emperor Jimmu came to the throne.

Sada Abe was released exactly five years after the murder, on May 17,1941.

Sada Abe became a popular subject in literature of both high and low quality.

The book was in the form of an interview with Sada Abe, but was actually based on the police interrogation records.

Sada Abe capitalized on her notoriety by sitting for an interview in a popular magazine, and appearing for several years starting in 1947 in a traveling one-act stage production called under the direction of dramatist Nagata Mikihiko.

Sada Abe lived a low-profile life in Tokyo's Shitaya neighborhood for the next 20 years, and her neighborhood restaurant association gave her a "model employee" award.

Decades after both the incident and her disappearance, Sada Abe continues to draw public interest:.