Here is an interesting, tattered artifact lost in history that was removed from our community board as we vacated the Japanese Institute of Sawtelle. This frail piece of paper documents the By Laws of Sawtelle Judo Dojo written back in the day, probably in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s considering some of the written language used in this document is very old and not used now. We first occupied the original community center building in 1929. 


It outlines the Board membership structure with one President, four Vice-Presidents, two accountants, six supervisors, one Secretary and a number of other roles. A 2/3 majority vote was required for any motion to be approved.


It shows the membership tuition structure as follows.
Initiation membership fee-$15Single membership-$5/monthSecond family membership-$8/monthThree family membership-$10/month
It seems like a very small amount.


However, if this document was posted in 1929, those amounts adjusted in today’s dollars (2023) would be the following.


Initiation membership fee-$261

Single membership-$87/month

Second family membership-$139/month

Three family membership-$174/month


However, if this document was posted in 1950 after Kikuchi Sensei & company resurrected our Dojo after World War II, these amounts adjusted in today’s dollars (2023) would be the following.

Initiation membership fee-$185

Single membership-$61/month

Second family membership-$99/month

Three family membership-$122/month


There’s our history lesson of the day.

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