Tenshodo Project began in 2016 with the inception of a school to train and nurture community organizers and subsequently expanded to include a community space aimed at elderly individuals and families with young children in need of play areas. The space also included an archive of Tenshodo's history. Additionally, the project involved collaborating with healthcare professionals to integrate art and wellness, creating a composite regional development project that reused the remaining items of Tenshodo through scrap and build to promote healthy living.

Background
Tenshodo had been a local employer since the early Showa period, selling school uniforms for Shirane Junior High and High School. It was a cultural leader and a memorable place for the elderly who spent their youth there. However, this long-standing Western-style store closed down six years ago and became vacant. The aging population and lack of successors led to the decline of the town, with many shuttered shops. Revitalizing the community and the whole region became a major challenge, requiring the involvement of nuclear families and younger generations in community activities.

Furthermore, in the Shirane district, there were survey results indicating that the area was the least healthy within Niigata City, attributed to factors such as a higher-than-average number of elderly-only households, increasing social isolation due to lack of transportation, and the long winters unique to Niigata. In the context of modern society, where community cohesion is weakening and societal stress is on the rise, it was believed that individual health is influenced by social determinants of health, which encompass various societal factors including the environment, economy, and education. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to develop place-making and community-building plans infused with artistic concepts while specifically incorporating the perspective of "social determinants of health" to address these challenges.

Therefore, aiming to create a "healthy" town using art, we established a collaborative framework involving the municipal office, residents, and local medical experts. Through research and analysis from the perspective of the medical industry, as well as experimentation and verification of the effects that contemporary art and culture can have as "alternative medicine," we formed a community space from various angles.

Originally, the ground floor of the newly renovated Tenshodo was designed and operated for four purposes. Immediately upon entering, there was a wooden building with a veranda that can be used for various purposes, utilizing the design of a local townhouse called "Freespace." This space was created over nine days of workshops in the project's inaugural year.