Sada Abe

was a Japanese geisha and prostitute who murdered her lover, , via strangulation on May 18, 1936, before cutting off his penis and testicles and carrying them around with her in her kimono. The story became a national sensation in Japan, acquiring mythic overtones, and has been interpreted by artists, philosophers, novelists and filmmakers. Abe was released after serving five years in prison and went on to write an autobiography. Family background 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. Sada's father, originally from Chiba Prefecture, had been adopted into the Abe family to help with the business, which he eventually inherited. 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, although some acquaintances reported him to be somewhat self-centered, with a taste for extravagance. Likewise, Sada's mother had no known legal or moral blemishes on her record. Sada's brother Shintarō was known as a womanizer, and, after his marriage, ran away with his parents' money. Her sister Teruko was also known to have had several lovers. Sada's father sent Teruko to work in a brothel, then not an uncommon way to punish female sexual promiscuity in Japan, although he soon bought her back. Teruko's past was not considered a hindrance to marriage for those of the Abes' class at the time, and she soon married. Early life Abe was born in 1905. Her mother doted on Sada, who was her youngest surviving child, and allowed her to do as she wished. She encouraged Abe to take lessons in singing and in playing the , both activities which, at the time, were more closely associated with geisha – an occasionally low-class profession – and prostitutes than with classical artistic endeavor. Geisha were considered glamorous celebrities at the time, and Abe herself pursued this image by skipping school for her music lessons and wearing stylish make-up.