{{short description|Executed Japanese serial killer}} {{Infobox serial killer | name = Shige Sakakura | image = | image_size = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = 1868 | birth_place = Tsu Domain, Empire of Japan (present-day Mie Prefecture, Japan) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|09|09|1868}} | death_place = Japan | cause = Execution by hanging | conviction = Murder | sentence = Death | victims = 200+ | beginyear = 1898 | endyear = 1913 | country = Japan | states = Aichi | apprehended = June 4, 1913 | imprisoned = }}
{{Nihongo|'''Shige Sakakura'''|坂倉しげ|Sakakura Shige|1868 – September 9, 1915}} was a Japanese baby farmer and serial killer who, together with two accomplices, was responsible for the murders of numerous infants in Hioki Wakasa (present-day Nagoya) between 1898 and 1913. For her crimes, both she and her accomplices were sentenced to death and hanged in 1915.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Akiyuki Hozumi|date=May 10, 2020|title=被害者数は300人以上！「貰い子殺し」で死刑になった女3人【背筋も凍る！女の事件簿】|language=ja|trans-title=The number of victims is over 300! Three women who were sentenced to death for killing children [The spine freezes! Women's casebook]|work=Excite|url=https://www.excite.co.jp/news/article/Real_Live_200023402/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210803064630/https://www.excite.co.jp/news/article/Real_Live_200023402/|archive-date=August 3, 2021}}</ref>
== Life and crimes == Shige was born in 1868 in the Tsu Domain, the daughter of a mechanic, and as an adult, she married a man belonging to the Sakakura family in Hioki Wakasa.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=June 4, 1913|title=Mainichi Shimbun|language=ja}}</ref> In 1898, she began working as a midwife, accepting illegitimate children for 40-50 yen each, which she then began killing one after another.<ref name=":0" /> 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, where many Japanese soldiers died during combat, leaving widows. To avoid detection, they would move to different establishments around the prefecture.<ref name=":0" />
The downfall of her operation came about when she killed the child of a geisha, who had the habit of visiting her to see her child.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":1" />
== 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.<ref name=":0" />
== Similar incidents == Following this case, the government 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=June 27, 1913|title=Mainichi Shimbun|language=ja|work=}}</ref> Of these, four, including 62-year-old Suzuki Nobu, were taking care of more than 170 children.<ref name=":2" /> Just three days later, three people led by 68-year-old Yosomatsu Nakanishi were arrested in Echi District, Shiga for having murdered numerous children in the span of nine years.<ref>{{Cite news|date=June 30, 1913|title=Mainichi Shimbun|language=ja}}</ref>
== See also == * Amelia Dyer * List of serial killers by country
== Bibliography == * {{Cite book|last=Hiroshi Fukuda|title=20世紀にっぽん殺人事典 単行本|publisher=Social Shisosha|date=July 31, 2001|isbn=4390502123|language=ja|trans-title=20th-century Japanese murder encyclopedia}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:1868 births Category:1915 deaths Category:19th-century Japanese criminals Category:19th-century murderers Category:19th-century Japanese women Category:20th-century executions by Japan Category:20th-century Japanese murderers Category:20th-century Japanese women Category:Executed female serial killers Category:Executed Japanese serial killers Category:Executed Japanese women Category:History of Nagoya Category:Japanese female serial killers Category:Japanese serial killers Category:Japanese murderers of children Category:People convicted of murder by Japan Category:People executed by Japan by hanging Category:People from Mie Prefecture Category:Violence against children