The Geisha and the Baby Farmers: How a Secret Report Exposed Japan's Most Horrific Serial Murders

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan was in the midst of the Meiji Restoration, a period of frantic modernization and societal change. As the nation shed its feudal past and embraced Western industry and culture, deep-seated social stigmas remained, creating dark cracks in the foundation of this new world. It was within one of these shadows that three women—Shige Sakakura, Tsuta Oki, and Naka Ikai—operated a business built on desperation and sealed with the death of society's most vulnerable: unwanted infants.

A Desperate Market in a Changing Japan

For an unmarried woman in Meiji-era Japan, becoming pregnant was a catastrophe. Lacking social safety nets, family support, or legal recourse, these women faced complete ostracization. Their children, deemed illegitimate, carried a stain that would follow them for life. This immense social pressure created a grim marketplace for solutions, and 'baby farmers' emerged to offer one. They promised to take in these infants for a substantial one-time fee, assuring the distraught parents that their child would be placed in a good home or cared for properly. It was a lie that would cost nearly 200 children their lives.

The Midwife's 'Nursery' of Horrors

Shige Sakakura was a licensed midwife, a profession that granted her a veneer of legitimacy and the trust of the community. Alongside her accomplices Tsuta Oki and Naka Ikai, she advertised her services as a foster home. Desperate parents, believing they were giving their child a chance at life, would hand over their babies along with a payment. But the infants were not cared for. Instead, they were taken to a house of horrors where they were systematically abused and starved. The trio's method was murder by neglect—a cruel, prolonged process that was harder to detect than overt violence. This allowed them to operate their gruesome business for an astonishing 15 years, from 1898 to 1913, with the number of victims growing into the dozens, and eventually, the hundreds.

A Geisha's Courage Unmasks the Killers

The web of silence and deceit was finally broken by an unlikely hero: a geisha. While her name is lost to history, her courage is not. Geishas, as skilled entertainers, were often confidantes to a wide spectrum of society and privy to the city's whispers. This particular geisha became suspicious of the 'nursery' and the sheer number of infants that seemed to disappear after being placed in its care. Unwilling to ignore the horrors she suspected, she took the monumental step of reporting her concerns to the police. In an era where a woman's voice, let alone a geisha's, held little official weight, her report was a profound act of bravery that set in motion the downfall of the baby-farming ring.

Justice and a Dark Legacy

The police investigation confirmed the geisha's worst fears. The scale of the crime was staggering, though the exact number of victims was difficult to prove due to poor records and the nature of the deaths. Authorities estimated that Sakakura, Oki, and Ikai were responsible for the murders of somewhere between 169 and 200 infants. The trial shocked the Japanese public, revealing a dark underbelly to their rapidly modernizing society. In 1915, the three women were found guilty and executed by hanging. Their case stands as a grim testament to the horrific consequences of societal cruelty and a reminder that the courage of a single individual can bring even the most monstrous secrets into the light.

Sources

• Wikipedia - Shige Sakakura
• Wikipedia - Baby farming
• Wikipedia - Meiji Restoration