Bangja, Crown Princess Euimin of Korea
Yi Bangja, Crown Princess Uimin(also
Euimin) of
Korea (born
4 November 1901 -
30 April 1989) was the consort of
Crown Prince Eun of Korea. She and her husband would have been the emperor and empress of Korea if the monarchy had not been abolished under the
Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of
1910.
Born
Princess Nashimotonomiya Masako of Japan, she was the first daughter of
Prince Nashimotonomiya Morimasa, the seventh son of Prince Kuninomiya Asahiko, an adopted son of Emperor
Ninko of Japan, and his beautiful wife, Princess Itsuko, a daughter of
Marquis Naohiro Nabeshima. She was a first cousin of Empress
Nagako of Japan, the wife of Emperor
Hirohito and the mother of Emperor
Akihito, and Princess Yoshiko, a wife of Prince Gun of Korea. On her mother's side, she was also a first cousin of
Princess Setsuko, the wife of Prince Chichibu, the Emperor Hirohito's younger brother.
She had one sister and another adopted brother:
*Princess Noriko (
27 April 1907 -
1992) m.
1926, Count Hirohashi Tadamitsu.
*Prince Norihiko (
22 November 1922), renounced Imperial title and became Count Tatsuda,
7 June 1943; lost title with enforcement of current Japanese Constitution,
3 May 1947, and adopted the surname Tatsuda; m.
1945 Princess Masako (born
8 December 1926) (his paternal second cousin), the eldest daughter of Prince Kuninomiya Asaakira, marriage dissolved
1979; adopted by Princess Itsuko, the mother of Princess Bangja,
28 April 1966, made legal heir of the former Nashimotonomiya Family; changed surname to Nashimoto.
She emerged as a candidate for Japan's next empress with Princess Nagako, later Crown Princess Hirohito and Tokiko Ichijo, a peeress, but she was engaged to Crown Prince Eun of Korea who had been held by Japanese government under the name of studying abroad in
1916. The possibility of infertility and feeble political influence was the reason she was removed from the candidates. On
28 April 1920, she married Crown Prince Eun at the King Lee's Palace in
Tokyo, after graduating from the Girls' Department of Peers' School and she titled
Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Lee (demoted Korean Imperial family's title after the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty). Despite the diagnosis, Crown Princess Bangja gave birth to the eldest son, Prince Jin on
18 August 1921. However, Prince Jin died when she visited Korea with her husband on
11 May 1922. On
24 April 1926, she became
Her Majesty Queen Lee (demoted title) when the Emperor Sunjong, the elder brother of Crown Prince Eun, died. On
29 December 1931, she gave birth to a second son, Prince Gu.
After the end of
WWII, their status demoted, Crown Princess Bangja and her family became commoners.
Rhee Syng-man's fear of Crown Prince Eun's popularity prevented her family's homecoming and they lived destitutely as Korean residents in Japan. On November
1963, Crown Princess Bangja and her family came back to Korea at the request of
Park Chung-hee and she lived in
Changdeok Palace in
Seoul. Thereafter, she devoted herself to the education of mentally handicapped people. She successively became the chairman of such committees as the
Commemorative Committee of Crown Prince Euimin, and the
Myeonghwi-won, an asylum for deaf-and-dumb persons or patients suffering from infantile paralysis and she founded the
Jahye School and the
Myeonghye School, which helps handicapped people become socially adapted. She was adored as the "mother of the handicapped in Korea" and she is one of few Japanese women respected by Koreans.
Crown Princess Bangja died on
30 April 1989, aged 87, at the Nakseon Hall,
Changdeok Palace in
Seoul from cancer. Her funeral was held as a semi-
state funeral which
Prince Mikasa and
Princess Mikasa of Japan attended and she was buried beside her husband, Crown Prince Eun at the Hongyureung,
Namyangju near Seoul.She penned her autobiography, now out of print, but still available from Amazon and used booksellers, documenting the events covered in this wikipedia article in greater detail. The title is
The World is One: Princess Yi Pangja's Autobiography.''
*
Prince Jin (李晋 이진
i jin) (born
18 August 1921 -
11 May 1922), the eldest son of Princess Bangja and her husband, Prince Eun. He was poisoned during a visit to Korea with his parents. His funeral was held on
17 May 1922 and he is buried in
Korea.
*
Prince Gu (李玖 이구
i gu) (born
29 December 1931 -
16 July 2005), the second son of Princess Bangja and her husband, Prince Eun. Prince Gu became the 29th Head of the
Korean Imperial Household upon the death of his father.
*Princess Nashimotonomiya Masako of Japan (
1901 -
1920)
*Her Imperial Highness Crown Princess Bangja of Korea (1920 -
1989)
*
Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Lee (1920 -
1926)
*
Her Majesty Queen Lee (1926 -
1945)
*
List of Korea-related topics*
Rulers of Korea*
Korea under Japanese rule
