---
title: "Korea’s last princess was taken to Japan in 1925, married Count Sō Takeyuki and came home 37 years later"
url: https://badiyaa.com/princess-deokhye-korea-japan-37-years/
published: 2026-11-10T16:00:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-10T16:00:00+00:00
section: History
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# Korea’s last princess was taken to Japan in 1925, married Count Sō Takeyuki and came home 37 years later

Princess Deokhye, Korea's last princess, was sent to Japan in 1925, married Count Sō Takeyuki and returned to Seoul only in 1962, 37 years later.

Korea’s last princess was taken to Japan in 1925 under the pretense of schooling, and stayed away for 37 years. When she finally flew home in January 1962, her wet nurse and a childhood classmate were waiting at Gimpo Airport.

## A visit refused

She regained her Korean citizenship on February 8, 1962. From 1968 she lived in Nakseon Hall at Changdeok Palace, with her brother Prince Uimin’s family and her old wet nurse.

Roughly a decade before her death, Sō flew to South Korea and asked to see her. A family member, Yi Gong-jae, turned him away, saying that meeting him would stir up the past and worsen her condition. In the English rendering of his answer, the refusal ends: “people like you are not allowed to visit at all, so please go back.”

## How it began

[Princess Deokhye](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Deokhye) was born on May 25, 1912, nearly two years after Japan annexed Korea. She was the youngest daughter of the 60-year-old former emperor Gojong and of Yang Gwi-in, a low-ranking court woman who worked in the palace kitchen. Four earlier daughters had died as infants, which made Deokhye the first to survive.

Gojong tried to shield her. In 1916 he set up a kindergarten at Deoksu Palace for her. In 1917 he persuaded the Japanese governor-general to enter her in the imperial registry. In 1919 he arranged a secret engagement to the nephew of a court chamberlain, and Japanese officials stopped it. Gojong died that January.

## Tokyo, and a marriage she did not choose

In Japan she attended the Gakushuin school and was known as Princess Tokue. A classmate remembered her as quiet. From the 1925 departure to the 1962 arrival, the count is 37 years, broken by a permitted trip for her mother’s funeral. That was in 1929, and she was not allowed to wear the proper clothing for it.

By spring 1930 her health had collapsed. She sleepwalked and often forgot to eat or drink. A physician diagnosed dementia praecox, the older name for schizophrenia. The English-language record links the illness to separation from her family and the pressure of colonial rule, an interpretation of her suffering rather than a clinical finding.

In May 1931, once she seemed better, she was married to Count Sō Takeyuki, a Japanese aristocrat, in a match arranged by Empress Teimei. Her brother protested. Their daughter, Masae, was born on August 14, 1932. From 1933 Deokhye spent many years in mental health clinics.

## What Japan’s defeat took away

The collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945 freed Korea and abolished Sō’s title. The couple divorced in 1955. The next year brought the worst blow: Masae disappeared in Yamanashi Prefecture on August 26, 1956, and a note found in the mountains led to reports that she had taken her own life.

South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, kept the royal line out, wary of political disorder. She came back only in 1962, at the government’s invitation. Accounts of the flight describe her crying as she neared Korea and, despite her illness, still recalling the elaborate etiquette of the court.

Sō died on April 22, 1985. Deokhye died at Sugang Hall in Changdeok Palace on April 21, 1989, four years less a day later.

More forgotten royal and imperial lives are collected in the [Badiyaa History section](https://badiyaa.com/category/history/), including [how the Indian emperor Ashoka’s own edicts tell his conversion story](https://badiyaa.com/ashoka-kalinga-conversion-edicts/).

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Princess Deokhye](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Deokhye)

*Illustrative image. Image: Unknown photographer, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*