Takahashi Oden’s is full of misfortune, right from the beginning.
Oden’s Birth and Childhood
Her mother is said to have gotten pregnant and then subsequently abandoned by a retainer of the Numata Domain. Domain here refers to an area ruled by a daimyo (feudal lord). Her mother was treated badly in her marriage, as she came to the marriage pregnant, and had a troubled pregnancy. She passed away when Oden was still very young.
As a result, Oden was treated as a burden at home and led a difficult life as a young girl. She left her hometown upon marriage but soon her husband contracted Hansen’s disease. Nevertheless, Oden devotedly worked to cover medical and living expenses, sometimes even taking jobs in the pleasure quarters. However, despite Oden’s devoted care, her husband passed away.
Oden’s Troubled Life Leads to Desperate Acts
Afterward, Oden began living with a man who was a gambler; his debts grew daily, and when Oden turned to an acquaintance for a loan to pay back her husband’s debt, the acquaintance agreed, with the condition that she sleep with him. She accepted the offer.
At dawn, after the act was complete, Oden brought up the debt again. The man declared he had no money. Enraged, Oden used a razor she saw laying around and slashed his throat, killing him.
Soon after, Oden was apprehended and tried. During the trial, she repeatedly made false statements, worsening the judges’ perception, leading to a death sentence by beheading. From a modern perspective, there seems to have been ample room for leniency considering the circumstances.
To read more about punishment and execution in feudal Japan, please see the article Punishment at the Edo Execution Grounds during the Samurai Era.
This is considered the last beheading in Japan, although there are records of others happening afterward. The executioner was Yamada Asaemon.
For Yamada Asaemon, who had been involved in countless beheadings, Oden’s execution became his final task. To learn more about this famous family of executioners, see our video below
Takahashi Oden’s Execution and Autopsy
Oden’s story has been dramatized and exaggerated in kabuki, literature, and ukiyo-e, spreading her infamous reputation nationwide as “Poison Woman Takahashi Oden.” Some stories twisted her actions, claiming she poisoned her husband, switched men multiple times, and killed people for money.
Even the depiction of her face in ukiyo-e seems maliciously drawn.
To make matters worse, after her beheading, her genitals were preserved as a specimen.
According to an article by Tadashi Takada titled “My Attendance at the Autopsy of Takahashi Oden’s Corpse,”(高橋お傳の屍體（死体）解剖に立會つ（立ち会っ）た私) published in the January 1932 issue of the magazine “Hanashi” (Bungeishunju), the autopsy took place in a temple in Tokyo, performed by five military doctors. Eight military doctors, including Koyamauchi and Takada, were listed as observers.
The place where she was executed can be visited in Ichigaya, Tokyo.
For more about executions in Edo Japan, see our video below.