Sabaki challenge 1994
What comes next here in this article is the results of this grand plan as it invaded the styles of Karate that were forming in the same time in the Japanese culture. Thus in the year 1907, Judo officially had a belt ranking system that would soon change the face of most of the martial arts world. Black would be for instructors, brown would designate advanced students, and white would signify a novice practitioner. He developed at first a three colored belt design. He was establishing a codified throwing and grappling system called Judo when he came up with a brilliant idea in the late 19th to early 20th century.
If you want to see the belts I use for my little ninjas, check them out on Amazon at this link. Jigoro Kano needed a way to distinguish between advanced students who could help with instruction and lower more novice ones. Did it happen this way? Probably not, but it makes for good story for instructors to tell their students. Though through constant training, they became symbols of time in the art or effort in the pursuit of perfection simply by the wear and tear that they displayed.Įventually, advanced students would be known by the state of their obi (Japanese term for belt). Depending on the clothing option for training in the specific training hall or area, belts were sometimes used and sometimes not. From the beginning the belt was a simple tool to keep a robe or jacket closed. The same sort of evolution happened with the belt over time. Though there was no uniformity, most began to utilize similar clothing like you would see at a health club today.įor the belt though, the legend goes like this… Yet over the centuries, developments in the materials used, thickness of collars, and fit of the jackets and pants have tailored them into precise training gear.Įven the thickness of the material will determine what style of martial training it should be used for. These types of clothing were not specially designed at first to be used as workout or martial arts training attire. Most uniforms or Gis you see today are simple adaptations of normal fashions of generations ago in specific Asian cultures. Wado-ryu Karate What is the History of Belt Colors and Rankings?.What is the History of Belt Colors and Rankings?.Some would like to argue the point, but for the purposes of this article I have colored their names in red for your reference. One further note: Today there four styles of Karate that are considered by most to be ‘main’ styles. The Japanese names of the dan ranks (black belt levels) for all Karate styles are as follows: Order Number Japanese Name of Rank Number of Stripes Preliminary Shodan Ho 1 Horizontal 1st dan Shodan 1 2nd dan Nidan 2 3rd dan Sandan 3 4th dan Yondan 4 5th dan Godan 5 6th dan Rokudan 6 7th dan Nanadan 7 8th dan Hachidan 8 9th dan Kyudan 9 10th dan Judan 10 Though these charts have been thoroughly compiled with 25 hours of research, there can be slight variations from dojo to dojo in each of these Karate styles.
Keep in mind, most Karate styles consider all the Kyu ranks to be variant levels of white belt.ĭue to this fact, some schools will change the order and color variations from the style’s national or international forms to fit their specific situations. There are different color and ordering systems for the Kyu ranks. Each have similar roots, but hold uniqueness in technique and belt progression. There is not one answer that can encompass all of these varying systems. There are 20+ styles of Karate, each with slightly different Kyu and Dan rankings that range from 6 to 20 color belt levels. It is not enough to speak of Karate in general terms when listing belt ranking orders and colors. All come with variations in kata, organizations, sparring rules, and for our interests here, belt rankings. There are over 20 distinguishable styles of Karate.