Princess Deokhye's gowns on display at palace museum

Children examine Princess Deokhye’s traditional gowns, which are on display at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Tuesday. The gowns, which the princess wore while she was living in Japan, were returned to Korea in June after 90 years. / Yonhap

By Kwon Ji-youn

Traditional gowns that once belonged to Deokhye (1912-1989), the last princess of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), are on display at the National Palace Museum of Korea through Sept. 6.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Korea-Japan relations, the museum is holding a special exhibition showcasing the gowns Princess Deokhye wore while she was living in Japan. The Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum in Tokyo, which had housed the dresses, returned them to Korea in June after 90 years in a bid to celebrate this special occasion.

The costumes include her “dangui,” a traditional royal garment for women, a long scarlet skirt and a pink “jeogori,” a Korean traditional jacket, among others.

“This special exhibition will give visitors a chance to reflect on the history surrounding Princess Deokhye’s life and that of the royal family of the Korean Empire,” a Cultural Heritage Administration staffer said. The Korean Empire, which succeeded the Joseon Kingdom, was proclaimed in 1897.

Princess Deokhye’s traditional gowns are on display at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap

Born in 1912 at Changdeok Palace in Seoul as the youngest daughter of King Gojong, the first king of the Korean Empire, Deokhye was forcibly sent to Japan in 1925 at the age of 14, when the peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule. In 1931, she married a Japanese aristocrat, Count So Takeyuki, heir to the So clan whose ancestors had ruled Tsushima Island for a long time. They had a daughter.

The marriage was in line with the Japanization of the Korean royal family as the colonial government feared they could become a focus for the independence movement.

The couple divorced in 1955, and her husband sent Deokhye’s belongings to King Yeongchin, the seventh son of King Gojong, who then donated them to Yoshichika Tokugawa (1886-1976), then-president of Bunka Gakuen.

While living in Japan, Deokhye suffered from mental illness and homesickness. In 1962, she returned to Korea, and lived at the Nakseon Hall of Changdeok Palace. She died at age 76 in the palace’s Sugang Hall in 1989.

For more information, call 02) 3701-7500 or visit www.gogung.go.kr.