Sada Abe: The Shocking Story of Obsession and Murder in 1936 Tokyo
Sada Abe, one of the most infamous figures in Japanese criminal history, remains a symbol of obsession and tragedy. Born in 1905 into a family of tatami makers in Tokyo’s Kanda neighbourhood, her life took a series of dark turns, leading her to commit one of the most shocking crimes of 1936 Japan. This article delves into the life, crime, and legacy of Sada Abe, a woman whose story continues to captivate historians, filmmakers, and the public alike.
Early Life of Sada Abe
Sada Abe was born into a relatively prosperous family of tatami mat makers. As the youngest of eight children, only four of whom survived to adulthood, her childhood was marked by isolation. Often sent out alone by her parents, she experienced a lack of stability early in life, a factor that would influence her later behaviour. Her life took a traumatic turn in her mid-teens when she was raped by a Keio University student. Abe's parents initially appeared to support her, but soon changed their stance, and, claiming that Abe had become irresponsible and uncontrollable, they sold her to a geisha house in Yokohama in 1922.
A Tragic Turning Point: Life in the Geisha House
Initially, she embraced her new life. Having taken lessons in singing and shamisen as a child, she felt well-prepared for the glamorous world of the geisha. However, this initial excitement quickly faded. Realising that she would never reach the upper echelons of geisha society, Abe grew increasingly disenchanted. To become a true star among geisha required apprenticeship from childhood, with years spent training and studying arts and music.
The darker side of the profession also became apparent to her, as customers began to demand sexual favours. The teahouse she worked at did nothing to prevent this, leaving her disillusioned and vulnerable. After contracting syphilis, a common affliction among sex workers at the time, she left the geisha world behind and became a shogi (licensed prostitute). Her involvement in the sex industry deepened, leading to her arrest for unlicensed prostitution in 1934.
The Relationship with Kinnosuke Kasahara
After her arrest, Abe was bailed out by Kinnosuke Kasahara, a frequent customer at the brothel where she worked. He made her his mistress, but their relationship soon grew tumultuous. Kasahara later testified during Abe’s trial, revealing details of her intense sexual appetite. He stated,
Even though I am pretty jaded, she was enough to astound me. She wasn't satisfied unless we did it two, three, or four times a night. To her, it was unacceptable unless I had my hand on her private parts all night long… At first it was great, but after a couple of weeks I got a little exhausted."
His description of Abe as “a woman whom men should fear” foreshadowed the tragic events that would soon unfold.
The Dangerous Affair with Kichizo Ishida
After her relationship with Kasahara ended, Sada Abe became involved with Goro Omiya, a banker and professor with political ambitions. He promised to help her leave the sex industry and even vowed to buy her a restaurant. However, before that could happen, Abe took a job as an apprentice in the restaurant business, working at a Tokyo establishment called Yoshidaya. This is where she met Kichizo Ishida, the man whose fate would forever intertwine with hers.
Ishida and Abe embarked on an affair that eventually became both passionate and destructive. On April 23, 1936, the pair met at a teahouse in Shibuya and reportedly spent four days in bed. Abe’s obsession with Ishida grew, and their meetings became more frequent. The more time they spent together, the more intense their relationship became, often involving erotic asphyxiation.
The Infamous Murder of Kichizo Ishida
On May 18, 1936, Abe and Ishida met for the last time. In the early hours of the morning, during one of their increasingly extreme sexual encounters, Abe used her obi (sash) to strangle Ishida. Whether she intended to kill him is still a subject of debate, but what followed was even more shocking. After lying next to his body, Abe cut off Ishida’s penis and testicles, wrapping them in paper and carrying them with her. She used his blood to write, “Sada, Ishida no Kichi futari kiri” (“Sada and Kichi Ishida, just the two of us”) on his thigh before leaving the scene.
Abe’s actions in the hours that followed remain chilling. After committing the murder, she calmly went shopping and even attended a movie. Her obsession with Ishida had driven her to ensure that no other woman could ever touch him again.
The Arrest, Trial, and Aftermath
On May 19, 1936, Abe went shopping and saw a movie. Under a pseudonym, she stayed in an inn in Shinagawa on May 20, where she had a massage and drank three bottles of beer. She spent the day writing farewell letters to Ōmiya, a friend, and Ishida. Abe planned to commit suicide one week after the murder, and practiced necrophilia.
"I felt attached to Ishida's penis and thought that only after taking leave from it quietly could I then die. I unwrapped the paper holding them and gazed at his penis and scrotum. I put his penis in my mouth and even tried to insert it inside me… It didn't work however though I kept trying and trying. Then, I decided that I would flee to Osaka, staying with Ishida's penis all the while. In the end, I would jump from a cliff on Mount Ikoma while holding on to his penis."
At 4:00 in the afternoon, police detectives, suspicious of the alias under which Abe had registered, came to her room. "Don't be so formal," she told them. "You're looking for Sada Abe, right? Well, that's me. I am Sada Abe." When the police were not convinced, she displayed Ishida's genitalia as proof.
Abe was arrested and interrogated over eight sessions. When asked why she had severed Ishida's genitalia, Abe replied, "Because I couldn't take his head or body with me. I wanted to take the part of him that brought back to me the most vivid memories." The interrogating officer was struck by Abe's demeanor when asked why she had killed Ishida. "Immediately she became excited and her eyes sparkled in a strange way." Her answer was: "I loved him so much, I wanted him all to myself. But since we were not husband and wife, as long as he lived, he could be embraced by other women. I knew that if I killed him no other woman could ever touch him again, so I killed him…" In attempting to explain what distinguished Abe's case from over a dozen other similar cases in Japan, William Johnston suggests that it is this answer which captured the imagination of the nation: "She had killed not out of jealousy but out of love."
When the details of the crime were made public, rumors began to circulate that Ishida's penis was of extraordinary size; however, the police officer who interrogated Abe after her arrest denied this, saying, "Ishida's was just average. [Abe] told me, 'Size doesn't make a man in bed. Technique and his desire to please me were what I liked about Ishida.'" After her arrest, Ishida's penis and testicles were moved to Tokyo University Medical School's pathology museum. They were put on public display soon after the end of World War II, but have since disappeared.
The first day of Abe's trial was November 25, 1936, and by 5 a.m., crowds were already gathering to attend. The judge presiding over the trial admitted to being sexually aroused by some of the details involved in the case yet made sure that the trial was held with the utmost seriousness.
Abe's statement before receiving sentencing began, "The thing I regret most about this incident is that I have come to be misunderstood as some kind of sexual pervert… There had never been a man in my life like Ishida. There were men I liked, and with whom I slept without accepting money, but none made me feel the way I did toward him."
On December 21, 1936, Abe was convicted of murder and mutilation of a corpse. Though the prosecution demanded ten years, and Abe claimed that she desired the death penalty, she was in fact sentenced to just six years in prison. Abe was confined in Tochigi women's penitentiary, where she was prisoner No. 11. Her 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. Abe was released exactly five years after the murder, on May 17, 1941.
Sada Abe’s Legacy in Popular Culture
The story of Sada Abe shocked the nation and continues to resonate in popular culture. During her time in prison, she received around 10,000 fan letters, along with several marriage proposals. After her release, she lived under an alias but continued to attract attention. In 1946, she was interviewed by author Ango Sakaguchi, who described her as a “tender, warm figure.” In contrast, Ichiro Kimura’s book The Erotic Confessions of Abe Sada portrayed her as a perverse figure, leading Abe to write her memoirs, Memoirs of Sada Abe, in response.
Her story has inspired numerous films, most famously Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976), which depicted the events with explicit, unsimulated sexual content. The film has never been shown uncensored in Japan but remains a testament to the enduring fascination with Abe’s life and crime.