Sataro Fukiage
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese
rapist
and serial killer
. He killed at least seven girls. He murdered his first victim in 1906, and killed six girls between 1923 and 1924. He was tried for three out of six cases, but his exact number of victims is unknown.
He raped a number of women besides the murder victims and according to one theory, he raped at least 93 girls. Some estimates say he raped more than 100 women.
. His family forced him to work at the age of nine under the East Asian age reckoning
. He frequently changed jobs. At the age of 11, he had sex with a girl about 17 years old, for which he lost his job. At 12, he was arrested for theft. Fukiage learned kana
and math during the two months he spent in jail. He was arrested again for theft soon after his release, but learned classical Chinese
while in jail the second time.
Fukiage had sex with a 54-year-old woman at the age of 17. He later raped the woman's 11-year-old daughter and some other girls in their neighborhood.
ed an 11-year-old girl at Kinkaku-ji
. The victim was an acquaintance of his. At the time he was culturally considered to be 18 years old, although he was 17 years old under the western age system. In jail, he studied the works of Confucius
, Mencius
, Socrates
, Aristotle
and Nichiren
. He was released in 1922 and found employment, but he was fired due to his criminal past. In April 1923, he was arrested for molesting a four-year-old girl, but was released.
upheld his death sentence on July 2, 1926.
on September 28, 1926. The media reported that he went to die nobly, unlike many prisoners. In his book, he requested that parents take care of their children.
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
rapist
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. He killed at least seven girls. He murdered his first victim in 1906, and killed six girls between 1923 and 1924. He was tried for three out of six cases, but his exact number of victims is unknown.
He raped a number of women besides the murder victims and according to one theory, he raped at least 93 girls. Some estimates say he raped more than 100 women.
Early life
He was born in Shimogyō-ku, KyotoShimogyo-ku, Kyoto
is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. First established in 1879, it has been merged and split, and took on its present boundaries in 1955, with the establishment of a separate Minami-ku....
. His family forced him to work at the age of nine under the East Asian age reckoning
East Asian age reckoning
East Asian age reckoning is a concept and practice that originated in China and is widely used by other cultures in East Asia, which share this traditional way of counting a person's age. Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year, rather than the birthday, adds one year...
. He frequently changed jobs. At the age of 11, he had sex with a girl about 17 years old, for which he lost his job. At 12, he was arrested for theft. Fukiage learned kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
and math during the two months he spent in jail. He was arrested again for theft soon after his release, but learned classical Chinese
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...
while in jail the second time.
Fukiage had sex with a 54-year-old woman at the age of 17. He later raped the woman's 11-year-old daughter and some other girls in their neighborhood.
First murder and imprisonment
On September 24, 1906, he raped and murderMurder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed an 11-year-old girl at Kinkaku-ji
Kinkaku-ji
, also known as , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The garden complex is an excellent example of Muromachi period garden design. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape, and it is one of 17 locations comprising the Historic Monuments of Ancient...
. The victim was an acquaintance of his. At the time he was culturally considered to be 18 years old, although he was 17 years old under the western age system. In jail, he studied the works of Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
, Mencius
Mencius
Mencius was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.-Life:Mencius, also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Ko, was born in the State of Zou, now forming the territory of the county-level city of Zoucheng , Shandong province, only thirty kilometres ...
, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and Nichiren
Nichiren
Nichiren was a Buddhist monk who lived during the Kamakura period in Japan. Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra, entitled Myōhō-Renge-Kyō in Japanese, as the exclusive means to attain enlightenment and the chanting of Nam-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō as the essential practice of the teaching...
. He was released in 1922 and found employment, but he was fired due to his criminal past. In April 1923, he was arrested for molesting a four-year-old girl, but was released.
Later murders and arrest
Between June 1923 and April 1924, he raped and murdered six girls, ages 11 to 16. He was arrested on July 28, 1924. He confessed to 13 murders, but later recanted, and insisting that he had murdered only six girls and that a police officer had asked him a leading question. He wrote a book, . He was sentenced to death on May 17, 1925. The Supreme Court of JapanSupreme Court of Japan
The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...
upheld his death sentence on July 2, 1926.
Death
He was executed by hangingHanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
on September 28, 1926. The media reported that he went to die nobly, unlike many prisoners. In his book, he requested that parents take care of their children.
Books
- 娑婆 (translation The Street, publisher Ganshodo-shoten, Japan 1926) by himself
- ドキュメント・連続少女殺人―孤高の鬼・吹上佐太郎 (translation Document; Serial Girl Murders—The Isolated Devil, Fukiage Sataro, publisher PAROL-SHA, Japan 1993)
- 身の毛もよだつ殺人者たち (translation Horrible Murderers, publisher Takarajimasha, Japan 2006) - One chapter in the book treats Sataro Fukiage.