Born in Tokyo on 26 December 1911, she was the second daughter of Yoshihisa Tokugawa (2 September 1884 – 22 January 1922), a peer, and his wife Princess Mieko of Arisugawa (14 February 1891 – 25 April 1933).

[1][2] Her maternal grandfather, Prince Takehito Arisugawa, was the seventh head of the Arisugawa-no-miya, one of the four shinnōke or collateral branches of the Imperial Family during the Edo period entitled to provide a successor to the throne in default of a direct heir.

Shortly after the wedding, Prince and Princess Takamatsu embarked upon a world tour, partly to return the courtesies shown to them by King George V of the United Kingdom in sending a mission to Tokyo to present Emperor Shōwa with the Order of the Garter.

Using money donated by the public, she established the Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund in 1968, organizing symposia and awarding scientists for groundbreaking work.

The diary revealed that Prince Takamatsu opposed the Kwantung Army's incursions in Manchuria in September 1931, the expansion of the July 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident into a full-scale war against China, and had warned his brother Hirohito in November 1941 that the Navy could not fight more than two years against the United States.

In 2001, after Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako had a daughter, Princess Takamatsu, at age 90, became the first member of the Imperial Family to publicly call for changes to the 1947 Imperial Household Law, which limits the succession to the Chrysanthemum throne to legitimate males in the male line of descent.

Her funeral was held on 27 December at Toshimagaoka cemetery in Tokyo's Bunkyō Ward with Prince Tomohito of Mikasa as the chief mourner.