Where Did They Come From and Are They Really Worth Anything?
When I started training in karate, the first rank that our dojo awarded was a black piece of electrical tape attached to the end of our white belts. We worked very hard to earn these first ranks. We were very proud of ourselves for having received our first rank certifications.
When students join a karate dojo, they start off in the kyu ranks, which are represented by belts beginning with white and usually ending with red or brown. Kyu means -rank, grade or class. Kyu ranks start from higher numbers and work their way down to the lowest number. A new club member with no karate training at all will typically be ranked 9th kyu or even 10th kyu, although some teachers prefer fewer ranks between the beginner level and black belt. The last kyu is the 1st kyu and it is awarded just before black belt.
Where did the rank system come from? Karateka of today generally assume that the ranking system of kyu (color belt) and dan (black belt) levels, and the various titles that high-ranking black belts hold, are, like the kata, a part of karate tradition dating back centuries. However, despite the fact that karate is indeed very old, the ranking system itself only goes back to the early 1900’s. The kyu/dan ranking system of karate takes its influences from the Japanese sport of Judo. When Funakoshi Sensei first brought karate over from Okinawa, he was befriended and sponsored by Kano Jigoro, the founder of Judo. Funakoshi is believed to have copied Kano’s uniforms for his Judo players and the belt system he was using at the time but later using the same design had his uniforms made from a lighter material.
| Another early system utilized a series of licenses called menkyo. The menkyo might also specify one of several different possible titles indicating his position with the system’s organizational structure. The ultimate certificate was the menkyo kaiden, awarded to students who had mastered every aspect of the system. Some system headmasters awarded only a single menkyo kaiden in their lifetime; to the person they chose as their successor. Isoshi Kai Karate uses both the Kyu/Dan rank structure and the Menkyo system in tandem. This is especially useful for the kyu ranks when the belt color does not change when advancing to the next more senior kyu. An example in Isoshi Kai Karate would be 3rd through 1st Kyu. All three ranks are red belt. | Figure 1: My white belt after ten years of wear and not washing it. As you can see it is quite filthy.  |
Theoretical tradition suggests that belt colors (as indicators of rank) originated in a eccentric habit of washing all of one’s training clothes except the cloth belt. Thus as training progressed the initially white belt would first turn a dingy yellow, then a greenish yellow, then a really dirty brown, and finally black. Well, it’s a nice story, but probably not true. Admittedly I myself attempted the white to black transformation and after almost ten years of not washing the belt the smell was just too much. The belt never did turn black although it did get to a medium brown tinge. Even so, some modern karate practitioners do not wash their belts including myself but mostly out of habit, hoping to achieve a worn and weathered look as evidence of their years of rigorous training. Others over wash their belts to get them looking worn-out sooner. And still others prefer to wear a new-looking belt at all times. It’s a matter of personal preference. In some rare cases a master will present his old and frayed black belt to his favorite student or successor, who will preserve it as a treasured memento and wear it as a badge of pride and honor to his teacher.
The belt-rank system devised by Kano and accepted by the Butoku-kai consisted of six kyu (color belt) grades, three white and three brown, and ten dan (black belt) grades. Funakoshi implemented this same system for karate after 1922, and on April 12, 1924, he awarded the first karate black belts and dan rankings to seven of his students: Hironori Ohtsuka (later the founder of Wado-ryu), Shinken Gima, Ante Tokuda, and four others named Katsuya, Akiba, Shimizu, and Hirose. At the time, Funakoshi himself held no rank in any martial art or system.
World War II caused a major disruption in Japanese and Okinawan martial arts. Many masters had died during the war, the practice of martial arts was forbidden for a time by the American occupying forces, and the Butoku-kai was shut down. Each school was unique, and the surviving leaders had to begin anew. On Okinawa the kyu/dan system was not yet well established, although some systems utilized at least the black belt. Following the war it finally became more widely accepted, leaving the problem of developing new sanctioning bodies to legitimize the ranks being awarded.
Karate ranks are thus, historically, a rather modern construct imposed over an old martial art. They are important in the standardization of requirements, which helps to maintain the integrity and value of systems based on tradition. However, it should never be forgotten that rank does not make the man. Within every rank there can be found a wide range of students whose skills vary dramatically, causing the observant karateka to sometimes wonder whether rank really guarantees much of anything. Achievement of rank should be considered as a side effect of karate training and not a goal. The true goal is personal development, to push our own limits beyond our state at whatever rank level we may attain. So yes, there is an inherent value to the color belt rank. Unfortunately there is no governing body that can universally establish and regulate requisite standards of excellence for rank. Too many times have I visited dojo where I would see senior ranking students whom couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, while at the same school see a junior kyu rank student perform better then the black belts.
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