Seattle Dojo hosted its twenty-eighth anniversary tournament on Sunday, February 10, 1935. In the individual competition, Seattle Dojo's Kaimon Kudo, second dan, beat Nakashima, third dan, by a half-point to take first in the senior competition. Then, to everyone's surprise, Tentoku Kan's Susumu Nitta, first dan, easily threw Kudo to win the team competition for his side.

Two months later, Seattle Dojo manager Yasutaro Miyazawa announced that the club was getting a new head instructor. Said the Great Northern Daily News in April 1935:

Two years ago, Jigoro Kano, "the father of judo," when in Seattle suggested that local judo schools cooperate and secure a capable instructor for the combined judo schools of the Northwest... Late last year, Hideichi [although usually transliterated Shuichi, this was an alternate reading of the characters] Nagaoka, ninth rank, also visited Seattle and offered similar advice. The local Yudan Shakai [black belt association] acted upon the recommendations of the well-known judoists and secured the services of [Yasuyuki] Kumagai, selected and recommended by Nagaoka and Kano.

He was formerly expected to arrive here in the capacity of Northwest judo schools' supervisor, but the plan of amalgamation of the school miscarried and he will instruct only the Seattle Dojo and its branch schools.

Although Kumagai and Sakata worked together well, the two Japanese never succeeded in reuniting the rival clubs. Maintaining improved relations was never easy, either. But, as Ryoichi Iwakiri of Fife later told Jerry Dalien, "Kumagai Sensei was a very patient man, whenever a parent or spectator started to make trouble at a tournament he would very patiently explain the situation and calm them down."

In October 1935 a retired Japanese admiral named Isamu Takeshita visited Seattle. The 67-year old Takeshita had introduced President Theodore Roosevelt to judo while serving as the Japanese naval attache to the United States in 1904, and in October 1935, he also introduced aiki budo, the forerunner of aikido, into the United States. Said the Great Northern Daily News:

Admiral Takeshita, himself, said that were it not for "aiki budo," a form of judo, nerve contact, and psychology, he would be exhausted from the handshakings that he had to do on his trip around the U.S. Aiki budo enabled him to shake hands all day and leave him tireless, he said... The other members of his party related how a big Eastern reporter was groaning in pain when Takeshita merely held his hand and added a slight pressure.