Death by Sex: The Sada Abe story

It’s time to go back in history and prove that the Japanese have always been an erotic lot. Do you all know the tale of Sada Abe (阿部 定)?

Born in 1905, she is infamous as the prostitute/maid who asphyxiated her lover and boss, Kichiro Ishida, in an inn after days of continuous sex.

Kichiro was the owner of the eel restaurant where Sada worked and he soon seduced his employee. They made love for the first time to the accompaniment of geisha singing, before eventually decamping to the 1930s equivalent of a love hotel, where they stayed for four days screwing non-stop.

After moving on to further inns, they sank deeper into a sordid well of “depravity”. Apparently, even when maids came into the room they would not stop…

She strangled Kichiro to death in his sleep, it seems, though the pair had frequently experimented with erotic asphyxiation. It’s controversial whether Kichiro wanted her to do it or now.

But it did not stop there.

She then cut off Kichiro’s penis and carried it around with her while she was a fugitive. She spent a few days more in hiding from the police, contemplating suicide and masturbating with what was left of her lover. When she was eventually found she nonchalantly showed the authorities the cock and confessed who she was.

In the end, though, Sada only spent five years in prison, and her tale has inspired generations of novelists and filmmakers ever since.

One notorious example was In the Realm of the Senses in 1976, which famously contains scenes of unsimulated sex between the performers.

Anyway… just something to think about, boys, when you make your Japanese girlfriend do dirty things in bed! Don’t let her near knives and scissors!