May 19, 2026.
Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden and Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
Video length: 34 minutes and 44 seconds.
Because Himari’s performances were so extraordinary, I created this as a separate work.
To the photographs of Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden and Nakanoshima Rose Garden taken on May 19, 2026, I added photographs of Nakanoshima Rose Garden taken at 5:30 a.m. on May 16, 2026.
Furthermore, in order to match the performance time perfectly, I repeated several dozen photographs from Nakanoshima Rose Garden taken at 5:30 a.m. on May 16, 2026.
This is a work in which the images and the performances have been completely synchronized.
On May 19, I entered Nagai Botanical Garden a little after 4 p.m.
On the way back, I also stopped by Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
Until today, the finest possible clear weather had continued, as if for the sake of all the good men and women, young and old, who wished to enjoy the roses in full bloom.
From tomorrow, the weather is expected to break and turn rainy.
It was as though the sky had kept its clarity until today so that the spring roses could show their final radiance.
The rose garden at Nagai Botanical Garden was still more than fully in bloom.
However, as a photographic subject, I think today was the limit.
For that very reason, the photographs I took today at the Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden are, even to my own eyes, truly good.
I believe they became splendid photographs.
The light after 4 p.m. is different from morning light.
It is not too strong, and yet it is not weak.
It deepens the colors of the roses, brings out the shadows of the petals, and quietly illuminates the final beauty held by the roses of spring.
The roses in the evening light had a beauty different from that of roses in the morning.
Roses just before passing beyond their full bloom.
And yet, they had not lost their dignity.
Rather, each flower seemed to gain an even stronger presence.
That beauty was there today in the Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden.
Nakanoshima Rose Garden, where I stopped on the way home, was also splendid as a rose garden blooming in the heart of the city.
And then there is Nakanoshima Rose Garden at 5:30 a.m. on May 16.
The roses in the light just after dawn had an expression entirely different from that of the roses in the evening.
Morning light.
Evening light.
Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden.
Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
The final radiant appearance of spring roses.
All of them became one visual work together with three musical gems performed by Himari.
For the music, I was fortunate to use Himari’s performances made available for YouTube.
Beach: Romance, Op.23.
Brahms: Violin Sonata No.3.
John Corigliano: The Red Violin, Part 1.
The spring roses of Osaka.
Nagai Botanical Garden Rose Garden.
Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
The evening light of May 19.
The dawn light at 5:30 a.m. on May 16.
And three musical gems performed by Himari.
This work is a 34-minute-and-44-second photo collection in which all of them become one.