Transforming the Osaka–Kansai Expo 2025 Site into the World’s Greatest Botanical Garden — A Vision to Preserve Sou Fujimoto’s Grand Roof Ring Forever
Last night, an inspiration came to me about how to use the Expo site after the event—an insight befitting “Civilization’s Turntable,” a place where today’s Kūkai and Nobunaga would dwell.
I had decided that, when summer came—when every day would be clear skies, the perfect season for photography—I would go to the Grand Roof Ring to take photos overlooking Osaka Bay and the city.
Because of this plan, I missed the chance to buy a season pass.
But since I can still purchase one, I am considering it.
On August 2, the TV Tokyo (Osaka) program Shin Bi no Kyojin (“Giants of the New Beauty”) featured Sou Fujimoto’s Grand Roof Ring of Expo 2025 Osaka–Kansai.
People involved in expos from around the world unanimously praised the Ring.
“Everything should be preserved,” said Westerners.
“Japanese construction technology is amazing—only the Japanese could make this,” remarked people from Asia and Africa.
The Grand Roof Ring, the Guest Pavilion, and the Forest of Nature—three of Sou Fujimoto’s life-work creations embodying his brilliant ideas—must be preserved as National Treasures.
I wrote this last night and sent it out to the world.
It was after that, that the inspiration in the opening paragraph came to me—the best and finest idea for preserving this site forever.
In May 2011, I was diagnosed by my attending physician with a serious illness and given a “25% chance of survival.”
I spent eight months hospitalized at Kitano Hospital, a large institution affiliated with Kyoto University’s School of Medicine.
Thanks to the excellence of the younger doctors and nurses—my juniors—I was fully cured and discharged on December 16, 2011.
The following year, 2012, I spent 300 days out of the 365 in the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden, directly connected to Kitayama Station on the Kyoto Subway Karasuma Line.
I photographed the plants and flowers of each season, wild birds such as kingfishers, butterflies such as the great Mormon and swallowtail, geckos, and various insects.
This botanical garden was truly the best.
Every day brought a fresh encounter; no two days were ever the same.
One month, I even bought a JR commuter pass from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto Station.
One of the biggest reasons I fell so deeply in love with the Kyoto Botanical Garden was its convenience.
Fifty minutes after stepping out my front door, I would arrive at the Garden.
Being directly connected to the station meant no fatigue at all.
That garden sparked my tradition of visiting seasonal flower-viewing spots on sunny days perfect for photography.
Yesterday, as I recalled my year’s beginning through photographing plants and flowers, I became convinced that my proposal was right on target.
In midwinter, there are Japanese sacred bamboo berries (senryō and manryō).
From January to February, camellias and sasanquas bloom—camellias, like roses, have many varieties and beauty equal to roses.
(Camellia is Chanel’s corporate flower.)
In early March come the plums, whose fragrance and beauty are proven by Osaka Castle’s plum grove and Kitano Tenmangū.
Weeping plums rival cherry blossoms in beauty, as shown by Jōnangū Shrine.
From late March to early April are the cherry blossoms—I believe Kyoto’s are the best in Japan.
“See the cherry blossoms of Daigo before you die”—the cherry blossoms at Daigo-ji Temple, associated with Hideyoshi, are themselves National Treasures, such as the weeping cherry at the entrance to Sanbō-in, and the incomparable beauty of the weeping cherry at Reihō-in.
Sometimes, the full bloom of the Somei Yoshino along the approach, forming an awe-inspiring cherry blossom corridor, coincides with the full bloom of these weeping cherries.
Nature’s timing is truly marvelous—during this season, there will always be at least one day of clear skies.
In years with two consecutive sunny days, I would visit two days in a row.
At the same time as Daigo-ji’s season, the Gion weeping cherry in Maruyama Park, discovered by Sano Tōemon—the hereditary name of the master gardener of Uetō in Saga, Kyoto—comes into bloom.
From Maruyama Park to Kiyomizu Temple, along Gion Shirakawa, the Takase River, and the Kamo River, it is as if curtains of weeping cherry blossoms have been drawn.
This sometimes coincides with the full bloom of the Somei Yoshino at the Kyoto Botanical Garden, which also enjoys clear skies.
Furthermore, the weeping cherries of Nison-in, Tenryū-ji, and the Somei Yoshino in Nakano-shima Park in Arashiyama; the full bloom of the weeping cherries in the gardens of Heian Shrine also sees clear skies.
Kyoto’s cherry blossom season ends with the Omuro-zakura at Ninnaji Temple—and even when these are in full bloom, the skies are clear.
After the cherry blossoms, the wisteria at the entrance to Byōdō-in in Uji comes into full bloom; a little later, the wisteria within the temple grounds bloom, and at that time the Kirishima azaleas by the pond are also in full bloom.
Every year, my “lovers,” the swallowtail butterflies, appear—two or three at a time—at these azaleas.
Every year at Byōdō-in, there is an eccentric man who ignores the temple itself and photographs only the azaleas and the butterflies in a frenzy.
When his photography ends, he turns on his heel and leaves the grounds—that man is me.
From there, I head to Nagaoka Tenmangū Shrine to photograph the best Kirishima azaleas in Japan.
After the azaleas come the satsuki azaleas.
In May, the satsuki around the Bank of Japan’s Osaka branch and Osaka City Hall coincide with the roses at the Nakanoshima Rose Garden.
The wisteria at Nara Park’s Manyō-en Garden in Kasuga Taisha—arguably the best wisteria garden in Japan—also bloom in full during this season’s clear days.
This chapter ends in early summer.
From New Year’s to early summer, every plant and flower in this greatest-of-all botanical gardens, encircled by Fujimoto’s Grand Roof Ring, would become a celebrated seasonal highlight of our time.
Several years ago, I first learned that Osaka also has a wonderful botanical garden—the Nagai Botanical Garden.
The first thing I found impressive there was the hydrangea garden—arguably the best in Japan.
The beauty of its diverse hydrangeas is unmatched.
While photographing a vivid deep pink hydrangea up close, a lizard suddenly appeared before me—a miraculous shot.
Those who have seen the photo would agree that the lizard’s eyes atop the splendid hydrangea made for unparalleled beauty and charm.
The length of time we gazed into each other’s eyes was pure bliss.
Another thing that impressed me at this garden was that its rose garden was blooming even in midwinter.
This spring, I experienced the true essence of that rose garden for the first time—it was magnificent beyond compare.
Until then, the Kyoto Botanical Garden’s rose garden had been my favorite.
A few years ago, I discovered the beauty of Osaka’s Nakanoshima Rose Garden and have since visited every spring and autumn to photograph it many times.
Yet Nagai’s rose garden could rival—perhaps even surpass—those.
I wish to add further thoughts on the greatness of turning the Expo 2025 site into the world’s greatest botanical garden.
The site is vast.
A plum grove, a cherry blossom park—the view of at least a thousand cherry trees from atop the Grand Roof Ring would rival the “Thousand Cherry Trees of Yoshino” in grandeur.
I have thought of photographing Yoshino’s thousand cherry trees, but Yoshino is simply too inconvenient—so I will likely be content with television images.
By contrast, the “Thousand Cherry Trees of Osaka” viewed from the Grand Roof Ring on the Expo site would be just fifty minutes from my home—taking the Midosuji subway line and transferring to the Chuo Line to Maishima Station, directly connected.
Many Osaka citizens would find it equally convenient.
For visitors from other prefectures or abroad, access is also excellent.
Along the way are the Kaiyukan Aquarium and the Santa Maria Osaka Bay cruise ship terminal.
The Nagai Botanical Garden is wonderful, but I do not visit often.
Although it is about fifty minutes by subway, it requires a ten-minute walk from the station, which is taxing in summer.
The route is not particularly enjoyable, and in photography, nondescript buildings get into the frame.
How about the Expo site?
Maishima Station is directly connected, and the view from the Ring is magnificent.
For lovers of the sea, water, sky, and clouds, it would be the ultimate grand botanical garden.
A plum grove, cherry blossom park, tulips, and various flowers would color the four seasons.
In autumn, it would surely become Osaka’s number one spot for autumn leaves.
It would be a place of rest and relaxation for not only Osaka’s citizens but all the people of Japan.
And so, last night, I had the ultimate inspiration for the post-Expo 2025 site.
That place should become a National Expo 2025 Commemorative Park (with cooperation between the national government, Osaka Prefecture, and Osaka City)—a world’s greatest botanical garden encircled by the largest wooden structure in human history, the Grand Roof Ring, humanity’s heritage.
Many pavilions tout sustainability.
This botanical garden would embody the spirit of Expo 2025—whereas the Expo is a temporary triumph, this would be an eternal one.
From across Japan and around the world, people would come to climb and stroll the world’s greatest Ring, spending the day in the botanical garden below—a supreme destination.
There could be no greater achievement.
Suntory’s splendid water attraction and the Ao and the Night Rainbow parade could be made paid attractions and continued.
Within the garden, there should be reasonably priced, delicious restaurants and rest areas with gift shops.
Japan, Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City—let us create, not with fine words but as a genuine sustainable project, a National Expo 2025 Commemorative Park inside the Grand Roof Ring.
Let us make the Ring bloom with even more flowers than now.
That is the true meaning of “Sukiyanen, Osaka.”