In honor of the spookiest month, we’re revisiting our favorite Womanica episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery all October. We're starting with Sada Abe, (1905-1971) who was a Japanese murderer convicted of killing her lover. Her case became a national sensation in Japan, where it took on mythic associations and captured the minds of a country in the ramp up to World War II. Her story has since been adapted and interpreted by filmmakers, artists, novelists, and philosophers as emblematic of a woman trying to follow her own desires in a society built on false morality and oppression.
Sada Abe (1905-1971) was a Japanese murderer convicted of killing her lover. Her case became a national sensation in Japan, where it took on mythic associations and captured the minds of a country in the ramp up to World War II. Her story has since been adapted and interpreted by filmmakers, artists, novelists, and philosophers as emblematic of a woman trying to follow her own desires in a society built on false morality and oppression.
In honor of the spookiest month, we’re revisiting our favorite Womanica episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery all October. Join host Jenny Kaplan — with a few special introductions — as she takes you back in time, highlighting women like Sadie the Goat, Marie Laveau, Patricia Krenwinkel and more who were ruthless, vengeful, and mystical. The riveting stories of these women are sure to keep you up at night.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hey, it’s Jenny. We’re currently gearing up for a brand new season of Womanica. Until then, we’re bringing you our favorite episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery in honor of October. Tune in next month for a month of Peacebuilders! Now, onto the episode.
Before we get started, just a warning that this episode contains some mentions of violence.
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
This episode originally came from our “Troublemakers” month, in October 2021.
Today, we’re talking about a woman who committed a passionate murder – and captured the imagination of Japan.
Her story has inspired generations of artists, who saw her as a transgressor, fighting against an oppressive society.
We’re talking about Sada Abe
Sada Abe was born in May 1905 in Tokyo, Japan to middle class parents. She was the youngest of seven children, all but three of whom died during childhood.
At that point in time, Japanese society still put considerable stock in the gender norms of the former feudal caste system in which women were expected to play a subservient or secondary role.
Sada’s older brother Shintaro was a well-known ladies man who was constantly stealing from the family to pay for his lavish lifestyle, which her parents mostly tolerated. But when Sada’s older sister Teruko was accused of promiscuity, her father sold her into indentured servitude in a licensed brothel where she languished for two years until he bought out her remaining contract. This was apparently a common punishment for daughters of the middle class who went astray.
When Sada was 14, she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance. Though her family was initially supportive, society in general was not and the trauma and subsequent depression eventually led Sada to drop out of school. She found work as a maid but was accused of theft, leading to her first run-in with the police. Fed up with yet another “wayward” daughter, as he saw it, Sada’s father arranged to sell Sada into service in a Geisha house in Yokohama.
At 17, Sada was too old to become a full geisha, as geisha training generally began in the early teen years. Still, she was popular with clients.
Three or four years later, at the age of 21, Sada contracted syphilis. The disease was incurable at the time, but she was legally allowed to continue working as a geisha as long as she submitted to regular health checks. These health checks were usually only required of state-licensed sex workers, known as shogis, and not geisha, who weren’t explicitly sex workers. When Sada realized that she now faced the same requirements as shogis did, but for less pay, she decided to leave the geisha house and join their ranks.
Unfortunately, Sada quickly discovered that shogis earned more but their lives were much worse. Shogis did not have the protections geishas did and were subject to significantly more brutality. She took out her revenge on disrespectful clients by stealing from them but was eventually caught and punished.
Following her punishment, Sada attempted to get out of sex work, but the brothel owners soon tracked her down and dragged her back to finish out her contract.
In 1932, Sada’s contract with the brothel finally ended. She decided to remain in the sex industry as an illegal unlicensed sex worker, know as a shisho. This allowed her to pick her own clients and gave her much more control over her life.
That same year, Sada’s mother died and Sada travelled back to Tokyo for the funeral, where she reconciled with her father. She decided to move back to Tokyo full time in order to be closer to him. Two years later, he fell ill and Sada nursed him through his final days.
A few years later, Sada moved to Nagoya, where she got a job as a maid in a local restaurant. There she had an affair with the restaurant’s owner, who convinced her that opening a restaurant of her own would allow her control over her life.
In 1936, Sada moved back to Tokyo to take a job as an apprentice in a restaurant called the Yoshidaya,. The head chef and owner, a notorious womanizer named Ishida Kichizo, quickly convinced Sada to begin an affair with him.
Almost immediately the two became deeply infatuated with each other and spent nearly two weeks straight together in a local hotel. When Kichizo finally had to leave to check on the restaurant, Sada was distraught. She drank heavily and went to a play to distract herself. The play, called “New Tales of the Erotic,” featured a scene in which a geisha kills her lover with a knife to prevent him from leaving. According to Sada, she was deeply affected by the scene. The next day she went to a hardware store and bought a large knife of her own.
When Kichizo returned to Sada three days later, she introduced the knife as a prop for erotic roleplay. The two then began experimenting with erotic asphyxiation, using the sash from Sada’s kimono.
Sada and Kichizo spent the next week together in a hotel, with Sada becoming increasingly infatuated with her new lover. On the 8thday of their sojourn, Kichizo told Sada more about his home life, particularly about his children and how much he loved them. The conversation led Sada to realize that Kichizo was deeply devoted to his family and would never leave them to start a new life with her.
That night while Kichizo slept, Sada strangled him to death with her kimono sash. She then fell asleep beside him. When she woke up the next morning, she cut his genitals off with the knife, left a message that read “Sada and Ishida Kichizo are alone,” and then fled.
When Kichizo’s body was found the next morning, the story immediately became front page news and the police started a highly-publicized manhunt for Sada. Sada suddenly became the real life embodiment of many of Japanese society’s greatest fears surrounding women and their slowly expanding place in society, particularly with regard to the perceived dangers of unbridled female sexuality.
People across Japan reported sightings of Sada. One mistaken sighting in a Tokyo shopping mall led to a stampede and mass panic. But Sada hadn’t left the city. She was holed up in another hotel under a false name. On May 20th, police knocked on her hotel room door during a neighborhood canvas and she told them exactly who she was.
Sada’s arrest was highly publicized. She immediately confessed to the police, and her highly detailed confession was quickly transcribed and published, becoming a nationwide bestseller.
Sada was sentenced to six years in prison for second degree murder and mutilation of a corpse. She was released in 1941.
Following World War II, Japanese society was in complete disarray. Many of the social norms that had governed Japan for centuries began to disintegrate. One major component of this was the advent of greater rights, freedoms, and empowerment for women, including finally getting the vote in 1946.
This social realignment also led to a revisiting of Sada’s case. People then developed a more nuanced view of Sada. Rather than seeing her as just a pure villain, they also saw her as a victim of male exploitation and deteriorating mental health. Writers of the period, including Sakaguchi Ango, cast her as a sort of feminist hero.
In 1947, a novel called “The Erotic Confessions of Abe Sada” was released. The book portrayed Sada as an erotic sadist, and was based on her confessions to police. In response, Sada published her own memoirs, and they became immediate bestsellers. She then spent several years touring around Japan in a play based on her life and crime.
For the next few decades, Sada’s story continued to inspire new films, plays, and books, including two famous 1970s arthouse films called “A Woman Called Sada Abe” and “In The Realm of the Senses.”
The last recorded sighting of Sada was in 1971. By that time she was in her late 60s and living as a buddhist nun in the Japanese countryside.
All month, we’re bringing you the best of villainy, magic, and mystery. Tune in tomorrow for another of our favorite episodes.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!