Backing Off a Promise to Marry a Crazy Geisha Costs a Man Dearly
Marriage might end badly, but sometimes refusing to wed could also end in catastrophe. That is what Kichizo Ishida (1894 – 1936), a Japanese businessman and restaurateur with a reputation as a womanizer, discovered. The owner of one of Tokyo’s most successful restaurants, Ishida left the management of his business affairs to his wife, and dedicated himself to skirt-chasing.
In 1936, he began an affair with a recently hired employee, Sada Abe (1905 – 1971), a former Geisha and prostitute. It did not take long after she started her new job before her boss made advances, which she 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. At some point, Ishida mentioned something about leaving his wife and marrying Sada, and she took it seriously.
She grew jealous whenever he returned home, and when he failed to follow through on divorcing his wife, Sada started thinking of killing him as a means of keeping him to herself forever. She brandished a knife during a tryst, but he thought it was roleplay and got turned on, which threw Sada off. Later, she again tried to murder him, this time by strangling him with a Geisha belt during sex. That turned him on even more, and he begged her to continue, which again threw her off.
When Ishida finally fell asleep, Sada steeled herself, and strangled him to death with her Geisha belt. She then castrated him, carved her name on his arms, and used the blood to write on his leg “Sada and Ishida Kichizo are alone“, and “Sada and Kichizo together” on the bed sheets, before fleeing. When news of the murder and mutilation broke, and that a “sexually and criminally dangerous woman was on the loose“, Japanese men were gripped with what became known as “Sada Abe Panic”.
Police eventually arrested Sada, at which point they discovered Ishida’s genitals in her purse. When questioned why she was running around with his 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“. She was tried and convicted, and served 5 years in prison before being released. She went on to write an autobiography, and lived until 1971.