Origin of the Martial Art Belt System
The use of coloured belts
to denote rank/experience was first introduced by the founder of Judo,
Dr Kano Jigoro. The first ‘black belt’ being awarded in the 1880s.
This belt system later became adopted by other Japanese arts, and later,
other martial arts such as Karate, Taekwondo and Kung Fu (coloured
sashes) as a way of expressing the length of service/knowledge of the
student. Karate only fully adopted the system in the 1960s. Up until
this point, many karate instructors did not use the belt system. An
example of this was Mitsuke Harada (Shoto-Kai) who when arriving in
Britain during the 1960's adopted the Judo belt system (Red, white,
yellow etc, rather than the White, Red, Yellow etc) as no official belt
system existed for karate at that time.
It is also commonly
believed that the black belt (dan grade) evolved from the wearer of
white belts not washing the belt for fear of washing away the ‘training’
and ‘qi/chi’. This resulted in the belt becoming dirty and therefore
‘black’ over time. This however would have been considered extremely
dirty, as the Japanese insisted the uniform be clean at every training
session.
The belt system is not the same in every art, or even
equivalent by standards. In some systems the black belt is relatively
easy to obtain, 3 years or less, while others take anywhere from 5 –
10 years. The testing for the black belt does however tend to be more
vigorous than for that of other grades. The black belt indicating that
the wearer is only a beginner at the top of the scale, rather than an
expert, a common misconception in the Western World.
Also, in
Judo there were 10 dans, taking approx. 30-40 years to reach, where in
Karate there were only 5 dans. As this led to a perception that the
10th dan was of a better standard than the 5th dan, which was not the
case, Karate took up the 10th dan system. Although there are very few
‘masters’ who reach 10th dan due to the length of time it takes to reach
during their lifetime.
Another way of describing a black belt
(Shodan) is that the student is in the first/beginning steps, and the
next grades, nidan and sandan (1st, 2nd, 3rd step etc) etc. The shodan
black belt is not the end of training but is the beginning to advanced
learning: the individual now "knows how to walk" and now begins the
"journey".
As some systems hold the black belt with an over
exagerated status, the achieving of one has become a marketing gimmick,
for example, being promised one after a set amount of time where a fee
is paid. Some schools place profit ahead of ability when using these
tactics and are sometimes referred to as McDojos. These McDojos prey on
the ignorance of the people they recruit as students, promising them a
‘black belt’ to gain personal profit.
