Sada Abe

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 shamisen, 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.

As family problems over her siblings Teruko and Shintarō became more pressing, Abe was often sent out of the house alone.

She soon fell in with a group of similarly independent teenagers.

At the age of 14, during one of her outings with this group, she was raped by one of her acquaintances, a Keio University student.

Her parents initially appeared to support her, but soon changed their response, and, claiming that Abe had become irresponsible and uncontrollable, her parents sold her to a geisha house in Yokohama in 1922.

Toku Abe, Sada's oldest sister, testified that Sada wished to become a geisha.

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

Abe's encounter with the geisha world proved to be a frustrating and disappointing one.

To become a true star among geisha required apprenticeship from childhood, with years spent training and studying arts and music.

Abe never progressed beyond a low rank, and one of her main duties was to provide sex for clients.

She 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, Abe decided to enter a better-paying profession.

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

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

After two years, Abe eventually succeeded in escaping the licensed prostitution system and began working as a waitress.

However, not satisfied with the wages, she was soon working as a prostitute again, though now unlicensed, and began working in the unlicensed brothels of Osaka in 1932.

Abe's mother died in January 1933, and Abe traveled to Tokyo to visit her father, and her mother's grave.

She 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, Abe nursed him for ten days until his death.

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

Kinnosuke Kasahara, a well-connected friend of the brothel owner, arranged for her release.

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

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

In his deposition to the police, he remembered, "She was really strong, a real powerful one. 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."

When Abe suggested that Kasahara leave his wife to marry her, he refused.

Sada Abe (阿部 定) was a Japanese geisha and prostitute who murdered her lover, Kichizō Ishida (石田 吉蔵), 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.

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.