It is reported to have begun in the vicinity of Shinjuku, and leadership included Nanao Sakaki, Tetsuo Nagasawa, Sansei Yamao, Mamoru Kato, and Kenji Akiba.
During their early years, this group published three issues of a magazine, called Psyche, which attracted some attention.
It was some time after the group obtained land in Nagano Prefecture and on Suwanosejima, that "the Tribe" (Buzoku) became their common alias.
By 1970, according to Yamao, a few thousand people felt some varying degrees of belonging to the Tribe, although the majority of the group's membership at this time was likely younger.
[1] A group member known as Sakaki found available land on Suwanosejima and brought several friends there, from the highland farm they had already started in Nagano [2] in May 1967.