Yi Un was the 28th Head of the Korean Imperial House, an Imperial Japanese Army general and the last Imperial Crown Prince of the Korean Empire. Before becoming the heir apparent to Sunjong of Korea, who became the emperor in 1907, Yi Un was known as the title Prince Imperial Yeong (영친왕). In 1910, the Korean Empire was annexed by Japan and Emperor Sunjong was forced to abdicate, and Yi Un married Princess Masako of Nashimoto, the eldest daughter of Prince Nashimoto Morimasa, on 28 April 1920 at Tokyo.
Yi Un as a lieutenant of the IJA, 1920s
Yi and Itō Hirobumi
Yi and his wife Yi Bangja (Princess Masako), 1923
From right to left: Yi Un's nephews Prince Yi Wu, Prince Yi Geon and Yi Un as officers of the Imperial Japanese Army, together with members of the Japanese imperial family at the Yasukuni Shrine, 1938
The House of Yi, also called the Yi dynasty, was the royal family of the Joseon dynasty and later the imperial family of the Korean Empire, descended from the Joseon founder Yi Seong-gye. All of his descendants are members of the Jeonju Yi clan.
Portrait for Taejo of Joseon, a 1872 copy painted by Cho Chungmuk
Emperor Gojong in 1898, painted by Hubert Vos
Korean Imperial family circa 1915. The image is a compilation of individual photographs taken since the Japanese did not allow them to all be in the same room at the same time, and some were forced to leave Korea. From left: Yi Kang, Sunjong, Yi Un, Gojong, Empress Sunjeong, Deogindang Gimbi and Yi Geon. The seated child in the front row is Princess Deokhye.
Crown Prince Yi Un with Itō Hirobumi, 1907
