The Seattle Dojo is located at 1510 S. Washington in the Squire Park neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is the oldest judo dojo in the continental United States, having been founded sometime before 1907 in what is today the International District. Establishment of the Seattle Dojo On October 17, 1903, a Kodokan leader named Yoshitsugu Yamashita gave demonstrations of judo at the Seattle Theatre. Witnesses included prominent local businessmen and journalists. This success inspired Seattle's Japanese immigrant community to organize its own judo dojo. The pioneer of the Seattle Dojo, previously misidentified as another Japanese immigrant, 25-year-old Iitaru Kano who arrived in Seattle in 1903, was in reality Itaro Kono, a Kodokan 2-Dan judo black belt who arrived in Seattle, also at the age of 25, on November 29, 1905 as a declared "Judo Teacher" aboard the Japanese cargo steamship Iyo-Maru. He remained in Seattle until at least September 18, 1909, when he participated in a judo demonstration for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. During the 1910s, Kono also started judo clubs in Spokane and Chicago. Later, Itaro Kono joined the Royal Mikado Troupe, a traveling performance act with the Barnum & Bailey Circus that demonstrated Japanese martial arts to American audiences across the country. Kono died of cancer in Williamsport, Pa, the present-day Home of the Little League World Series, on August 29th, 1914, at the age of 34. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the 'Poor Ground' section of Wildwood Cemetery in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on September 4th, 1914. The man who made Seattle Dojo famous, however, was professional wrestler Tokugoro Ito, who made the club his headquarters during his stay in Seattle (1907–1911). Other wrestlers associated with Seattle Dojo included Eitaro Suzuki, who wrestled for Japan during the 1932 Olympics, and Kaimon Kudo, a popular professional wrestler of the 1930s and 1940s. Location of the Seattle Dojo Until 1934, the Seattle Dojo was located in the basements of various Japantown hotels. The current structure was built during the spring of 1934. Its architect was Kichio Allen Arai, whose better known designs include the Seattle Buddhist Church, the Yakima Buddhist Church, the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple, and the White River Buddhist Temple. The building is of frame construction, and its only unusual feature is that its floor is mounted on truck springs, thereby literally giving it spring. Tournaments before World War II Seattle Dojo held its first regional tournament in