Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, and Morality in Modern Japan (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.52 (921 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 023113052X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-11-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"An Amazing Crime" according to Kevin Killian. Once you get over reading the name "Abe Sada" as though it were "Abe Lincoln," you'll have a whale of a time reading Dr. Johnston's account of a famous modern Japanese geisha and killer. He is a professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, but don't let his distinguished credentials put you off, he is also a tip top storyteller. Many of us in the West heard ab. Abe Sada Review The book starts off a bit slow, establishing the social attitudes and perceptions of normal sexual behavior in Japan, and in Abe Sada's own history. After the first 20 or 30 pages, though, the book gets into the actual story that continues to capture the attention of audiences worldwide. Overall, a very interesting, well-written account of the events that transpir. Sada keeps the meatiest part (of the book) for herself Nick2032 The translation of Abe Sada's own story as presented in the police record is the highlight of the book, as another reviewer notes. She is quite able to tell her own story in full psychological detail. This is the essential part of the work, and is really fascinating. Kudos to Johnston for translating this and bringing more light to the story. However, the first pa
Her story illustrates a historical collision of social and sexual valuesthose of the samurai class and imported from Victorian Europe against those of urban and rural Japanese peasants.. Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star steps beyond the simplistic view of Abe Sada as a sexual deviate or hysterical woman to reveal a survivor of rape, a career as a geisha and a prostitute, and a prison sentence for murder. Along with a detailed account of Sada's personal history, the events leading up to the murder, and its aftermath, this book contains transcripts of the police interrogations after her arrestone of the few existing first-person records of a woman who worked in the Japanese sex industry during the 1920s and 1930sas well as a memoir by the judge and police records. Sada endured discrimination and hounding by paparazzi until her disappearance in 1970. What made her do it? And why was she found guilty of murder yet sentenced to only six years in prison? Why have this woman and her crime remained so famous for so long, and what does her fame have to say about attitudes toward sex and sexuality in modern Japan?Despite Abe Sada's notoriety and the depictions of her in film and fiction (no
The case galvanized the Japanese imagination, for Sada, represented by media as the archetypal "dangerous woman," whose sexuality threatened traditional domestic stability, tapped a current of subconscious social fear. Including notes from the police interrogation of Sada, this well-researched, scholarly work is a service to women's studies as well as Asian cultural history. By considering Sada's limited options at the time and the structure of the sex industry, which punished would-be escapees from it by selling their contracts to ever-seedier brothels, Johnston allows us to see Sada as imprisoned by circumstances, which included rape, even more than by her six-year incarceration for the murder-mutilation of the love of her life. From Booklist In a smart, compelling examination of the real-life basis of the classic film In the Realm of the Senses, Johnston presents Abe Sada, Japan's most notorious female criminal. In 1936, after d