On Saturday morning, May 16, 2026, sunrise in Osaka was at 4:55 a.m. For a long time, I had wanted to photograph Nakanoshima Rose Garden in the early morning. Just after 5:00 a.m., I took a taxi to Naniwa Bridge and captured the roses immediately after dawn. This is a photo collection that could only have been created in the early morning of this very day.

May 16, 2026.
Saturday morning.
I woke up before 5:00 a.m.
Outside, it already felt like dawn.
I checked the sunrise time in Osaka.
It was 4:55 a.m.
I made my decision immediately.
This morning was the moment.
For a long time, I had wanted to photograph Nakanoshima Rose Garden in the early morning.
The rose garden just after dawn, with almost no one around.
The moment when the morning light begins to fall upon the roses.
That was what I had always wanted to capture.
Kyoto Botanical Garden and Nagai Botanical Garden have opening hours.
No matter how early I try to be the first to arrive, I cannot enter before they open.
But Nakanoshima Rose Garden has no such opening time.
That is why it was the first place where my wish to photograph a rose garden in the early morning could truly be fulfilled.
I quickly got ready and tried to call a taxi through the GO taxi app.
However, it did not connect properly.
So I decided to walk to the station.
Fortunately, there was a taxi waiting in front of the subway station.
I immediately got into that taxi and headed for Naniwa Bridge in Nakanoshima.
It was a time when many people were still sound asleep.
I overcame my drowsiness, got into a taxi just after 5:00 a.m., and headed for Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
I cannot say there was not a single person there.
People living nearby begin their mornings early.
Even so, the situation was almost exactly what I had hoped for.
Nakanoshima Rose Garden just after dawn.
I was able to photograph the very moment when the morning light began to fall upon the roses.
The photographs contained here are, of course, images that could only have been taken in the early morning today.
This is not a rose garden that can be seen like this at any time.
These are not photographs that can be taken whenever one wishes.
They were possible only because of this morning, this hour, this light, this air, and this silence.
This morning’s work is, even to my own eyes, very good.
I sincerely hope this work will be seen and appreciated throughout the world.
What kind of light surrounds Nakanoshima Rose Garden in the early morning?
What kind of expression do roses show just after dawn?
I would like to share that fleeting moment with you.
Please enjoy it.
The music is used in the following order.
Mussorgsky: Dawn on the Moscow River.
Humperdinck: Prelude to Hansel and Gretel.
Mascagni: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.
Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture.
The audio sources were selected from performances publicly available on YouTube.