The Sense of Community of Imori-dani

The sense of community is truly what brings people together within a given context or area, and it can be considered to be one of the driving forces behind the fortification of the other community capacity attributes and the perpetuation of the A-A-A cycle. According to McMillan

105 and George (1986), “When people who share values come together, they find that they have similar needs, priorities, and goals, thus fostering the belief that in joining together they might be better able to satisfy these needs and obtain the reinforcement they seek (p.13).” A visible sense of community promotes the other attributes of community capacity by instilling a pride within the people in the community that fosters commitment and invigorates ideas and planning.

Imori-dani (Newt Valley) is the home of the Matsumoto community, a part of Usa City in southern Japan. The community came together to help form a consistent view of the situation in the community and to develop the vision of the community. The sense of community that was cultivated in Imori-dani has led the community to have not only prosperity, stability of livelihood, physical improvements in the community, deep social ties, and a sense of well-being, but also encouraged new residents to settle in the area.

The Matsumoto Village is a small and modest community consisting of about 56 households, in which the primary economic activities include growing soybeans, grapes, rice, and vegetables, as well as the relatively new activity of green tourism, which connects tourist activities with agricultural activities. The village gets the nickname of Imori-dani, Newt Valley, because the fields and houses are situated in a twisting valley that from above resembles a squirming newt. Furthermore, the newt is a symbol of the community that is used for branding and marketing purposes.

According to the spokesman of the Matsumoto Village Farming Cooperative, Mr. Eiji Nimiya, a common consciousness in Imori-dani started to form in the beginning of the twentieth century when it was necessary for the whole village to come together to create a pond to collect water for farming. However, even though there has been a budding sense of community in Matsumoto since the Showa era², the modernization of agriculture and high economic growth weakened the “common consciousness” of the community (Nimiya, 2008).

Soybean cultivation began in 2000 with the introduction of government subsidies for the endeavor. The young farmers in Matsumoto were inspired to start growing soybeans and they subsequently formed the Matsumoto Village Farming Cooperative, which has been a main contributor to the organization of economic activities within the community, as well as a conduit through which the sense of community in Imori-dani has been developed. The collective conversion of the land from rice to soybeans that the cooperative undertook was said to help create a sense of “oneness in the village” (Nimiya, 2008).

Another step in the development of the sense of community in Imori-dani was the Village Vision Building Workshop (entitled “This is our ideal Matsumoto”) that was held in July of 2000 as a part of an Oita prefecture program for agricultural promotion. This workshop, in which community members from all age groups (elementary school students to senior citizens) in the village participated, helped to establish a consensus on the community vision to “create a village where anyone would want to live” (Nimiya, 2008). The workshop also inspired new ideas, such

2 The Showa era (1926-1989) is a nostalgic period in Japan. Although the period includes the WWII atrocities, it is most commonly associated with the post-war renaissance.

Figure 12 - Fields of Imori-dani

Source: Nimiya, 2008

106 as the combined exchange and production activities in what they called the Imori-dani Matsumoto Village Building Activity. In Matsumoto, the year 2000 was when “the villagers became one” (Nimiya, 2008).

The Imori-dani Matsumoto Village Building Activity has seen various positive outcomes for the community. Production outcomes such as the use of local soybeans for a special brand of tofu in Oita City, increased productivity of the fields through the rotation of between rice and soybeans, and the cultivation of wheat and lotus flowers help to benefit the community economically. The construction of the Village Farming Center, which is used for events, special meetings, and hosting tourists, has resulted in increased communication and collective activities within the community. Special events, such as the Firefly Concert and the Imori-dani Lotus Festival, were conceived and organized. These events attract tourists, which in turns generates income and contributes to the growth of the sense of community through collective activity and pride in the success and uniqueness of the events. Market channels and commercial networks for Matsumoto products were established, such as the direct sales location within the shop that sells the special tofu in Oita City, and further contribute to the economic growth of the community.

Small scale processing of local products such as jams, pastes, breads, miso, and side dishes has provided an occupation and economic rewards for the women and senior citizens in Matsumoto.

These small factories have also become an integral part of the green tourism activities, which further contributes to the economic prosperity of the village. The young farmers’ section of the agricultural cooperative, the Imori-dani Club, was organized and the club promotes the vision of the community and information from the cooperative through the maintenance of the village homepage (Nimiya, 2008).

The outcomes of the Imori-dani Village Building Activity were achieved thanks to the strong sense of community that was re-activated through the workshop. Additionally, the sense of community became progressively stronger through the cooperative activities of the villagers;

thus resulting in more and varied activities. Matsumoto Village continues to see the need for development in their community, so with the strong base in the sense of community that they share, the villagers envision future plans and endeavors. Some of the future plans that are underway in Imori-dani include shifting the

cooperative into a corporation, establishing an online direct sales space, forming the Imori-dani 100 Skills Club to hand down traditional activities to the next generation, the expansion of green tourism, and to review the old vision and establish new ones (Nimiya, 2008).

Conducting a vision workshop only once would have limited effectiveness; this was realized by the community in Imori-dani and a follow-up workshop was held in 2005. The 2005 workshop assessed the progress on the vision and activities discussed in 2000, as well as worked on solutions for new challenges that the community was facing (Nimiya, 2008). The follow-up workshop helped to sustain the sense

of community and redefine it through the dynamic revitalization of the community. Matsumoto Village chose not only to continue with their original vision of “creating a village where anyone

Source: Nimiya, 2008 Figure 13 - Matsumoto Village Vision Building

Workshop 2000

107 would want to live”, but also expanded upon it to include concrete plans for how to attain their other goals, such as economic growth through combining the activities for production and tourism.

The community in Matsumoto has also developed ways to express unity that sprung outside of formal workshops and meetings through the continued participation of and communication between the residents during community activities. For instance, the community has designated the color red to be the official color of the community. When residents participate in the various community activities that are held in Imori-dani they often choose to wear red items, such as the red bandanas worn by the women during events, to show their pride and support of Matsumoto.

The people chose red because it is the color of love and it further demonstrates the feeling of unity that exists between the community members (Nimiya, 2008). The color of Matsumoto was not necessarily designated through formal channels; it is a reflection of the sense of community that exists in Imori-dani. It serves as an example of how this community capacity attribute can be formulated without direct intervention. Furthermore, it demonstrates the continued growth of community capacity in the peripheral spectrum of community activities after an initial community capacity growth strategy had been introduced (i.e. the vision workshop).

Table 2 is a summation of the components of the A-A-A cycle in Matsumoto Village. The table describes the contributing factors of the community capacity characteristics in the attributes column, the main actors in the agents column, and the activities in the actions column. It should be noted that the Vision Workshop 2005 and the activities that came from it demonstrate the progressive nature in the A-A-A cycle, in as such that they are the direct result of the capacity gained through the creation of the sense of community at the Vision Building Workshop and their subsequent activities.

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Table 2 - A-A-A description of Imori-dani

Attributes Agents Actions

Sense of Community

• conversion to soybean production: “oneness in the village”

• Vision Building Workshop: “our ideal Matsumoto”

• “create a village where anyone would want to live”

• the color red

• Oita Prefecture

• Matsumoto Farming Cooperative

• Imori-dani Club

• Imori-dani 100 Skills Club

• Vision Building Workshop

• Matsumoto Village Building Activity

• tofu production

• Village Farming Center

• Events – Firefly concert and Lotus festival

• new market channels and commercial networks

• local processing

• Vision

Workshop 2005

• Green Tourism

• Imori-dani 100 Skills Club

Commitment • participation in workshops, events, and activities

Objectives • established at the Village Building Workshop: Matsumoto Village Building Activity

• established at the Vision Workshop 2005: expand green tourism, online sales, establish corporation, follow-up workshop, set up Imori-dani 100 Skills Club

Resources • indentified in part at the Vision Building Workshop: productive land, elderly, young leaders, natural surroundings

Source: Author

The shared norms, values, and vision in the sense of community in Imori-dani can clearly be seen through the establishment of the farming cooperative, the vision workshop, and the outcomes achieved as a part of the Village Building Activity. The sense of community that exists in Matsumoto Village engaged the people and enabled the community to come together to set objectives to effectively utilize the resources at their disposal. The activities and outcomes that were accomplished by the Matsumoto community fortified and defined their sense of community further and then, in turn, allowed the community to participate in more value-added and sophisticated activities. The example of Imori-dani articulates the importance of the sense of community, as well as the role of the sense of community in A-A-A cycle of community capacity.