,My best friend is a Japan enthusiast. The guy is a six foot six English man who actually lived in the empire of the sun for three years, until the Fukushima disaster changed his life and the lives of many others. When the tsunami hit, he was actually away, eating a hotdog with me in Williamsburg. Well, that’s when he found out anyway. I remember it vividly because he dropped his dog. Joe was on a well-timed vacation, though he insists on calling them holidays, just as some might call what I just said plain cynical. Well, I guess you’re right, but am I to blame for being happy that my pal was thousands of miles away from a major nuclear/environmental disaster theater?
http://www.citizenbrooklyn.com/topics/eat/issey-sagawa-japans-celebrity-cannibal/
Anyway, as soon as Joe started trying to reach his Japanese mates and girlfriends (being super tall, blond, and funny, he had many) and couldn’t speak to them he decided to purchase a bottle of Jameson. He felt guilty for not being there. I guess that if he didn’t, he would’ve bought an even more expensive whiskey… At that point, I had to put aside all my irrational dislike for japan, all my pseudo-racist jokes, and actually start empathizing with the courageous nation that was now on its knees. Honestly, I have never witnessed such a great display of dignity. It started making me feel bad for not being a big fan of japan. Stereotypes and clichés are pretty much like opiates; they’re easy to come across, they poison your system, and they’re difficult to kick… Don’t get me wrong, I love sushi and I’ve driven Japanese cars… Now that I think about it, I even have a few Japanese friends. Mostly pen pals, but you can’t say I ain’t trying. So, why is it that whenever Joe mentioned Japan, I started to look all constipated? The answer is very simple. I tackled this issue with my shrink and we broke it down to the fact that I really don’t like technology that much, I hate manga, and when I was a kid, I came across the figure of a four foot nine Japanese fellow called Issey Sagawa, also known as the Japanese cannibal who feasted on a young Dutch woman in the early summer of 1981.....
http://www.japanfortheuninvited.com/articles/issei-sagawa-the-celebrity-cannibal.html
,Celebrity career. Although most people were appalled by what he had done, there was undeniable public fascination with Sagawa, and he has managed to make some sort of living out of his infamy:He has authored at least 13 books, including explicit accounts of his own experiences. In one, he describes how the Dutch girl’s flesh “melted in [his] mouth like a perfect piece of tuna”. He has also written about other people’s atrocities, including a book about the infamous child-killer Sakakibara.He appeared in the 1992 film Sisenjiyou no Aria (The Bedroom), in which women are drugged and subjected to bizarre sexual fetishes. Sagawa’s role as a sadistic voyeur drew directly from his public persona.Another example of art imitating life is in Sagawa’s own painting, which focuses on the nude bodies of Caucasian women.In one extraordinary display of bad taste, he was once hired by a tabloid to write restaurant reviews
http://voices.yahoo.com/issei-sagawa-murderer-cannibal-celebrity-7775418.html
'The public has made me the godfather of cannibalism, and I am happy about that. I will always look at the world through the eyes of a cannibal.' - Issei Sagawa
Issei Sagawa is an unassuming man, standing at a height of less than 5'. He is a published author of four novels, he's written a regular column for a local tabloid, illustrated a comic book, is a local celebrity in Japan, and was the inspiration for the song "Too Much Blood" by the Rolling Stones. He is also a convicted murderer and cannibal, who freely admitted to his crimes.
http://www.olceoktavia.com/2009/08/an-interview-with-issei-sagawa-cannibal/
.On the afternoon of June 12, 1981, a Japanese man named Issei Sagawa walked into the woods in Bois de Boulogne, France, carrying two suitcases. The postgraduate student at the Sorbonne had shot and killed a female exchange student, a classmate of his, the day before. After eating portions of her body, he tried to dump the corpse in a remote lake. Witnesses saw him and he was soon arrested. According to reports, Issei uttered the following to the French police who raided his home: “I killed her to eat her flesh.”
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