was a Japanese
baby farmer and
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
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* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who, together with two accomplices, was responsible for the murders of numerous infants in Hioki Wakasa (present-day
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
) between 1898 and 1913. For her crimes, both she and her accomplices were
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
and
hanged
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
in 1915.
Life and crimes
Shige was born in 1868 in the
Tsu Domain
was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Tō ...
, the daughter of a mechanic, and as an adult, she married a man belonging to the Sakakura family in Hioki Wakasa.
In 1898, she began working as a midwife, accepting illegitimate children for 40-50
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro.
T ...
each, which she then began killing one after another.
By May 1913, it was estimated that she and her women accomplices (45-year-old Tsuta Oki and 62-year-old Naka Ikai) had killed around 200 infants, with her most prolific years being during the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
, where many Japanese soldiers died during combat, leaving widows. To avoid detection, they would move to different establishments around the prefecture.
The downfall of her operation came about when she killed the child of a
geisha
{{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha
{{nihongo, Geisha{{efn, {{IPAc-en, lang, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ., ʃ, ə, {{IPA, ja, ɡei.ɕa, ɡeː-, lang{{cite book, script-title=ja:NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典, publisher=NHK Publishing, editor= ...
, who had the habit of visiting her to see her child.
When she was not allowed to see it anymore, she became suspicious and contacted the police, who arrested Sakakura and her cohorts. Ten days later, the case was publicized in the newspapers, becoming a national sensation.
Sentence and execution
On June 29, 1914, all three criminals were sentenced to death, with the sentence upheld on October 21 of the same year. Sakakura, Oki and Ikai were all hanged on September 9, 1915.
Similar incidents
Following this case, the government issued began a crackdown which led to the arrests of other baby farmers. On June 27, 1915, ten people led by 55-year-old Sushi Sasaki were arrested for killing 32 infants in
Atsuta.
Of these, four, including 62-year-old Suzuki Nobu, were taking care of more than 170 children.
Just three days later, three people led by 68-year-old Yosomatsu Nakanishi were arrested in
Echi District, Shiga
is a Districts of Japan, district located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 34,262 and a population density, density of 325.07 persons per km2. The total area is 105.40 km2.
Towns and villag ...
for having murdered numerous children in the span of nine years.
See also
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Amelia Dyer
Amelia Elizabeth Hobley (1837 – 10 June 1896), popularly dubbed the Ogress of Reading, was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era.
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List of serial killers by country
This is a list of notable serial killers, by the country where most of the killings occurred.
Convicted serial killers by country Afghanistan
* Abul Djabar: killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them; suspected o ...
Bibliography
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakakura, Shige
1868 births
1915 deaths
19th-century Japanese criminals
19th-century Japanese women
20th-century executions by Japan
20th-century Japanese criminals
20th-century Japanese women
Executed female serial killers
Executed Japanese serial killers
Executed Japanese women
History of Nagoya
Japanese female serial killers
Japanese murderers of children
People convicted of murder by Japan
People executed by Japan by hanging
People from Mie Prefecture
Violence against children