Manhunt On as Japan Terrified by Penis-Chopping Geisha on the Loose
Kichizo Ishida (1894 – 1936) was a Japanese businessman and restaurateur with a reputation for being a ladies’ man. He started off as an apprentice in a restaurant that specialized in eel dishes, and by age 24 he opened what would become one of Tokyo’s most successful restaurants, the Yoshidaya. Kichizo eventually left the management of his business affairs to his wife, and dedicated himself to womanizing. Early in 1936, he began a love affair with a recently hired employee, Sada Abe.
Sada Abe (1905 – 1971) had been Geisha and former prostitute before getting hired on as an apprentice at Kichizo’s restaurant. It did not take long after she started her new job before her boss made advances, which she eagerly welcomed. The two became infatuated with each other, spending days in marathon sex sessions at hotels, not stopping even when maids came in to tidy up and clean the rooms.
Unfortunately, Sada’s infatuation became an obsession. She started getting jealous whenever Kichizo returned to his wife, and started thinking of killing him to keep him forever to herself. She bought a knife and threatened him with it during their next tryst, but Kichizo thought it was role play, and it turned him on even more. That threw Sada off. Later during the marathon sex session, she again steeled herself to kill him, this time by strangling him with a Geisha belt during sex. It only turned him on even more, and he begged her to continue. That threw her off once again.
Finally, Kichizo fell asleep, at which point Sada finally gathered her nerve to go through with her plans, and strangled her sleeping lover to death with her Geisha belt. Then, she took out the knife and castrated him, carved her name on his arm, and with his blood wrote “Sada and Kichizo together” on the bed sheets before fleeing. Kichizo’s body was discovered the next day, and when news of the murder and mutilation broke, and that a “sexually and criminally dangerous woman was on the loose“, Japan, and especially Japanese men, were gripped with what became known as “Sada Abe Panic”.
Police eventually caught up with and arrested her, at which point they discovered Kichizo Ishida’s genitals in her purse. When questioned why she was running around with Ishida’s penis and testicles, Sada 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“.
Sada Abe was tried and convicted, and served 5 years in prison before being released. She went on to write an autobiography, and lived until 1971. The Ishida-Abe love affair and its bizarre end became a sensation in Japan, embedded in its popular culture and acquiring mythic overtones ever since. The story has been depicted in poetry and prose, portrayed in movies and television series, and interpreted over the decades by various philosophers and artists.