Yun Sim-Deok ( hanja

Hanja

Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...

:尹心悳; 1897–1926) was the first woman soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 to achieve fame throughout Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

.

Life and career

Born in Pyongyang

Pyongyang

Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...

 in 1897, she studied at the Pyongyang Girls' Middle and High Schools, and graduated from Kyongsong Women's Teaching College in Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

 in 1914. After graduation she became a primary school teacher in Wonju

Wonju

Wonju is the most populous city in Gangwon province, South Korea.Wonju is a city approximately east of Seoul and the capital can be reached within 1hr 30minutes by bus or train. Wonju is home to three major universities which attract many students from Seoul and elsewhere. They provide facilities...

.

She left for Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 where she studied music at Tokyo Music School. It was there that she met and fell in love with an English literature and drama student, Kim Woo-Jin . However, Kim was married and had a wife and children at his home in the city of Mokpo

Mokpo

Mokpo is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea, on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Mokpo has frequent train service to Seoul and is the terminus for a number of ferry routes serving islands in the adjacent Yellow Sea...

.

They set off back for Korea on a passenger ship but jumped from the ship into the ocean and were drowned.

Her most famous recording, recorded in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 by the Japanese Nitto recording company, and accompanied by her sister on the piano, is "Saui ch'anmi/In Praise of Death" (or a Psalm of Death) which is set to the tune of "The Waves of the Danube

The Waves of the Danube

"Waves of the Danube" is a waltz composed by Iosif Ivanovici in 1880, and is one of the most famous Romanian tunes in the world. In the United States, it is frequently referred to as "The Anniversary Song", a title given by Al Jolson when he and Saul Chaplin released an adaptation of the song in...

" by Ion Ivanovici

Ion Ivanovici

Ion Ivanovici was a Romanian military band leader and composer, best remembered today for his waltz Waves of the Danube....

. This was released in Korea in 1926 and is often regarded as the first "popular" Korean song.

Two films have been made of her story. The first a 1969 film entitled "Yun Shim-Deok" directed by Han Hyeon-Cheol and starring Moon Hee

Moon Hee

Moon Hee is a South Korean actress active since 1965. She was born in Busan, South Korea in 1947. While attending Seorabeol Art College with a film and theater major, Moon applied for recruiting new actors by KBS TV. When she was attending for a camera test, Moon was picked up by an assistant...

. The second was Death Song

Death Song (film)

Death Song is a 1991 South Korean film directed by Kim Ho-sun. It was chosen as Best Film at the Chunsa Film Art Awards.-Synopsis:The life of Yun Sim-deok, a Korean woman who studied singing at Tokyo University during the 1920s...

named after Yun's most famous song, and made in 1991. It was directed by Kim Ho-Seon , for which he won the 1992 Grand Bell Award

Grand Bell Awards

The Grand Bell Awards is an awards ceremony presented annually by The Motion Pictures Association of Korea for excellence in film in South Korea....

 for best director. Chang Mi-hee

Chang Mi-hee

Chang Mi-hee is a South Korean actress active since 1976. She was born Lee Yun-hui in Seoul, South Korea in 1957. Chang debuted as an actress in 1976 as starring in Seong Chun-hyang jeon directed by Park Tae-won and TBC TV drama, Haenyeo Dang-sil...

 starred as Yun, and the film retells the story of the lovers' time in Japan and their death.

Footnotes