The story became a national sensation in Japan, acquiring mythic overtones; it has also been interpreted by artists, philosophers, novelists and filmmakers. Sada Abe was the seventh of eight children of Shigeyoshi and Katsu Abe, an upper middle-class family of tatami mat makers in Tokyo 's Kanda neighborhood.
Likewise, Sada's mother had no known legal or moral blemishes on her record. Sada's father sent Teruko to work in a brothel , then not an uncommon way to punish female sexual promiscuity in Japan, although he soon bought her back. Teruko's past was not considered a hindrance to marriage for those of the Abes' class at the time, and she soon married.
Abe was born in She soon fell in with a group of similarly independent teenagers. Abe herself, however, claimed that her father made her a geisha as punishment for her promiscuity. Abe's encounter with the geisha world proved to be a frustrating and disappointing one. To become a true star among geisha required apprenticeship from childhood, with years spent training and studying arts and music.
Abe never progressed beyond a low rank, and one of her main duties was to provide sex for clients. She worked for five years in this capacity and eventually contracted syphilis. Abe began work as a prostitute in Osaka 's famous Tobita brothel district , but soon gained a reputation as a trouble-maker. She stole money from clients and attempted to leave the brothel several times, but was soon tracked down by the well-organized legal prostitution system.
However, not satisfied with the wages, she returned to prostitution, though now unlicensed, and began working in the unlicensed brothels of Osaka in After the death of her mother in January , Abe traveled to Tokyo to visit her father, and her mother's grave. She entered into the prostitution market in Tokyo and while there became a mistress for the first time. When her father became gravely ill in January , Abe nursed him for ten days until his death. In October , Abe was arrested in a police raid on the unlicensed brothel at which she was working at the time.
