A WOMAN was so in infatuated with her married lover that she strangled him and cut his genitals off so she could carry them ‘forever’. Sada Abe carved out a message on Kichizo Ishida’s leg in blood saying: “Sada, Kichi together” after the gruesome murder that captivated 1930s Japan. The couple often indulged in erotic […]
A WOMAN was so in infatuated with her married lover that she strangled him and cut his genitals off so she could carry them ‘forever’.
Sada Abe carved out a message on Kichizo Ishida’s leg in blood saying: “Sada, Kichi together” after the gruesome murder that captivated 1930s Japan.
The couple often indulged in erotic asphyxiation, but on the morning of May 18, 1936, Abe killed Kichizo in their hotel room.
She was arrested three days later after police found her with Kichizo’s genitalia carefully wrapped in a magazine cover in her bag.
The 31-year-old told police: “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.”
Curious spectators crowded the court house when Abe was put on trial – after she was photographed smiling as guards escorted her in.
After being found guilty she begged for execution, but she was jailed for just six years and only served five of those years.
Upon her release she wrote a biography ‘A Woman Called Sada Abe’, not just about the murder, but about her troubled upbringing.
Abe was bought up in an upper middle-class family in Tokyo in 1905 and had seven siblings.
Tragically, she was raped at the age of 14, which lead her to struggle hugely with her mental health and act out.
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.
Sada Abe
Her parents decided that selling her to a ‘geisha house’ three years later would help her deal with the hideous attack – but unsurprisingly it did the opposite.
In the 30s, geishas were regarded highly and seen as celebrity figures and were taught from a young age not to sleep with men, but Abe ignored that rule and became a licensed prostitute.
However, she got a bad reputation after she was found stealing money from some of her clients – this lead her into unlicensed brothels.
Unhappy with her life and how she was treated by the men, she got a job working in a restaurant – owned by Kichizo Ishida, who took a shine to Abe.
The wealthy and married Kichizo was known for his womanising ways, but the pair were said to have developed a deep sexual chemistry and would stay in hotel rooms for days.
Abe wrote that Kichizo liked being choked and during a two-hour erotic asphyxiation session he was left in pain but enjoyed it.
But Abe fell in love with him and became jealous of his wife.
According to her book, the randy pair would often continue bonking even when the hotel maids entered the room to bring them refreshments.
Two months into their affair she strangled him, hacked his penis and testicles off and then carved her love letter into his skin.
She planned to take her own life after the murder so checked herself into a hotel under a fake name and spent days writing notes to her friends.
She was going to jump to her death from a mountain, but wanted to have sex with her lover one last time so packaged up his penis for her personal use.
The 31-year-old said to police: “After I had killed Kichizō I felt totally at ease, as though a heavy burden had been lifted from my shoulders, and I felt a sense of clarity.”
She also starred as herself in a documentary made in 1969 called “History of Bizarre Crimes by Women in the Meiji Taishō and Shōwa Eras” before she disappeared from the public eye the following year.
The 1976 French-Japanese film In the Realm of the Senses(Ai No Corrida) is based on the couple’s passionate affair.
She is believed to have spent her final years in a nunnery.
