Where did belt colour sequence develop from?

[ILBUNYON]

This is a phenomenom to me. i understand there are very few Martial Arts styles which don't use the belt system, and a majority that do. the belt symbolizes the experience and knowledge of the martial artist, and this alone provides them with the respect they deserve. i also understand while Martial Arts were developing there are elemental boundaries that coincide with one another. i'm curious to know how belt colour sequence was level'd by the basic colours we see everyday?

[Touch Of Death]

I hid it was based on dance school levels aready in existence; before, You just got a belt that became darkened by age.
Sean

[RED]

The White belt is the first belt usually because it’s the color of innocents. It represents a new beginning. Over years of hard work and exercise the white belt gets dirty and turns black. Then as the years go on the black belt gets faded and frayed and turns white again. A black belt is just the beginning of a long journey. It represents an understanding of the basics of a particular style. Now I’ve been to several schools and everyone had a different way of progression through the different colored belts. Each school has developed their own ways. I know the ITF has definitions that go with the ranks. This is what I’ve seen and been taught. I can only speak from a mainly traditional TKD back ground.

Hope this answers some of your question.

[jks9199]

As I understand it, Jigoro Kano introduced the belts to judo. They spread to karate when it was introduced to Japan. Many other arts since have chosen to incorporate them, as well, for their own reasons. Where Kano got the idea, I don't know.

Meanwhile -- the meaning and intent of the black belt versus a teaching license has also changed.

The simple truth? Belts and belt rankings are just a tool to assess, within a school or system, the relative skill levels of the students. A black belt doesn't confer magical ability; the brand new black belt the morning after the test probably doesn't know much (if anything) more than he or she did the morning before the test. In some systems, a black belt is expected to be able to serve as an instructor; in others, it's a completely separate thing to get authority to teach, and there are many black belts in those systems who do not teach (other than by example during classes).

[Andrew Green]

you'll get lots of funny stories about getting dirty, grass stains making it green, sweat yellow and all that. They are all myth.

Basically Kano decided to start giving black belts to yudansha to tell who was where, and the belt system was born. The White / Red & White / Red ones came from a swimming system of some sort if I remember correctly.

[Steel Tiger]

As I understand it, Jigoro Kano introduced the belts to judo. They spread to karate when it was introduced to Japan. Many other arts since have chosen to incorporate them, as well, for their own reasons. Where Kano got the idea, I don't know.

As far as I understand Kano introduced only a black and white belt distinction. I have a feeling that it may have been a Frenchman who introduced the kaleidoscope of coloured belts. To what art originally i don't know.

[sholo86]

Japanese Judo was the first martial art to introduce the colored belt ranking system as a visible indication of the students’ progress. The colored belt ranking system soon was adapted for Karate, and was first used by Sensei Gichin Funakoshi and his Shotokan Karate schools.

In the old days the white belt was simply dyed to a new color. This repeated dying process dictates the type of belt color and the order of the colors!. The standard belt color system is white, yellow, green, brown, and black. In some Karate school and styles, the color order is white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black. http://www.all-karate.com/p/belt_colors.gif Due to the dying process, it is practical to increasingly use darker colors. All of this came about shortly after the second world war, when Japan was a very poor country, and dying the belts to a new color was a cheap way to have a visible, simple and effective ranking system.

I found this at http://www.all-karate.com/125/history-of-karate-belt-colors

Our system do not use or award belts until you achieve 1st Dan (black belt). I think a lot (or most) kung fu schools are like this, but at the same time, a lot of kung fu schools are starting to adopt the belt ranking system (using colored sash) in order to accomodate the student, parents, or society's perception of ones martial arts skills and seniority. It also helps during Open Martial Arts Tournaments (which a lot of times are run by a TKD or Karate organization).

[tellner]

Steel Tiger is correct. I believe the originator of the colored belts was Mikonosuke Kawaishi, but the memories are old and unreliable.

Here's the mystical version:

In the beginning the student wears a white belt to symbolize that he is pure and clean. With hard work he sweats on it and it turns dingy yellow. As he gets knocked around blood stains it, and the yellow becomes orange. Eventually the unwashed scrap of cloth becomes moldy. The mold goes through a maturation and succession from green to blue. Eventually brown shiitake mushrooms sprout on it. The belt begins to rot and turns into a slimy black. Eventually the molds sporulate turning it white again. The belt and filthy moldering gi dissolve away to nothing, leaving the Master naked which symbolizes his Beginner's Mind and return to purity :p

[Shaderon]

The belt and filthy moldering gi dissolve away to nothing, leaving the Master naked which symbolizes his Beginner's Mind and return to purity :p

That's a scary thought! we'll all be naked eventually? :barf:

I wondered what the smell in the dojang was last night, here's me thinking it was the ladies in the class before us....

[Brother John]

Over years of hard work and exercise the white belt gets dirty and turns black. Then as the years go on the black belt gets faded and frayed and turns white again.

You just got a belt that became darkened by age.
Myths! ......and nothing more.

Kano wanted the Judo program to be similar to the Japanese school system, which used (way back then) different color of uniforms, or shoes...or other things....to denote a childs level of advancement. Kano wanted Judo to be embraced by the school system (which would ensure the longevity of his system).
Gichin Funakoshi and Chojun Miyagi both introduced Okinawan Karate-Do to Japan and wanted the exact same thing Kano wanted, so they imitated HIS system.
the MASSIVE majority of Korean systems are revamped Japanese and Okinawan systems with Korean terms and such... So they also have the different colored belts.

Your Brother
John

[kidswarrior]

I have no idea, but loved reading these replies. Nothing like a good story in the AM. All I can think of is, when I highlight in books, the lighter the color (yellow), the less important the info to me. Then I go to orange, green, and blue. That's where I stop. Haven't been able to find a black highlighter yet, but am looking so I can use it for the really important stuff. :D BTW, my wife loves to clown on me about coloring in my books--which makes it impossible for her to read them after me (but what she doesn't know is that's part of the plan--don't want her touching my stuff.) But this gives me an opportunity to remind her I have an advanced degree, while she only has a BA.

PS: tellner, do you promise that the black highlighting will eventually grow mold and turn back to white?

And Shad, our instructor always blamed us for the smell, not the class before. :uhyeah:

[Andrew Green]

I'm under the impression that most of the colors where added outside of Japan initially, Europe I believe.

It's nice to have a cool story, but sometimes there just isn't one.

[TraditionalTKD]

It was, I believe, Jigaro Kano who first brought the concept of colored belts into martial arts as a way of compartmentalizing and codifying what he taught. It is easier to retain knowlege if it is divided into sections (this is what I need to know at white belt; this is what a green belt should know etc.) versus just passing down knowlege continuously.
However, each style and even country has put their own version on this, as is to be expected. I believe Chung Do Kwan originally had three belts-white, brown, and black. After Tae Kwon Do developed its own identity, different organizations included different colors. The Kukkiwon system is white, yellow, green, blue, red, and black. I want to say that this was based on the earlier Korean system of military rank. So the belt system itself is Japanese based, but the one used by the Kukkiwon is definitely Korean. I'm sure the ITF and Japanese styles have their own version. But the principle is the same.

[MBuzzy]

In Tang Soo Do, the belt colors are said to represent nature. White being winter, Orange being the time between Winter and Spring (added to Moo Duk Kwan in 1975 as an encouragement for beginngers), Green being Spring, Red being Summer, and Midnight Blue being Autumn. The seasons represent both the time in your training and different values.

Values such as....White: Emptiness, innocence, purity
Green: Growth, spreading, advancement
Red: Ripening, Yang, activity
Midnight Blue: Maturiry, calm, passiveness, and harvest

[tellner]

kidswarrior: You blew your chance when you resorted to modern innovations like magic markers. If only you'd stuck with tradition...

[Touch Of Death]

Myths! ......and nothing more.

Kano wanted the Judo program to be similar to the Japanese school system, which used (way back then) different color of uniforms, or shoes...or other things....to denote a childs level of advancement. Kano wanted Judo to be embraced by the school system (which would ensure the longevity of his system).
Gichin Funakoshi and Chojun Miyagi both introduced Okinawan Karate-Do to Japan and wanted the exact same thing Kano wanted, so they imitated HIS system.
the MASSIVE majority of Korean systems are revamped Japanese and Okinawan systems with Korean terms and such... So they also have the different colored belts.

Your Brother
JohnDon't include my quote into the myths. You are speaking of a much later time period.
Sean

[kidswarrior]

kidswarrior: You blew your chance when you resorted to modern innovations like magic markers. If only you'd stuck with tradition...
Now you tell me....

[DavidCC]

I'm reading a book about the life of Musashi and the development of Budo. According to this book, Kano did introduce colored levels, borrowed from traditional swim clubs.

[Brother John]

Don't include my quote into the myths. You are speaking of a much later time period.
Sean
no I'm not.
and I stand by it.
I added your quote because I feel it's a myth. The 'belt' in karate, before the move to Japan from Okinawa, was often non-existant or really WAS nothing more than mundane clothing. They would have washed it also, as being dirty was frowned on in that society.

it might have been 'worn', but it wasn't given.
Unless sensei had some used clothing and you were entirely destitute I guess....but WOW that's a stretch.

Your Brother
John

[Brother John]

In Tang Soo Do, the belt colors are said to represent nature. White being winter, Orange being the time between Winter and Spring (added to Moo Duk Kwan in 1975 as an encouragement for beginngers), Green being Spring, Red being Summer, and Midnight Blue being Autumn. The seasons represent both the time in your training and different values.

Values such as....White: Emptiness, innocence, purity
Green: Growth, spreading, advancement
Red: Ripening, Yang, activity
Midnight Blue: Maturiry, calm, passiveness, and harvest

Those are the meanings that Tang Soo Do attributes to the different colors, but it's not their source. They weren't chosen due to those meanings, those came later.

Your Brother
John

[Touch Of Death]

no I'm not.
and I stand by it.

Your Brother
JohnSo belts only came into existance during the time period you mentioned. How did the keep thier tops closed before? I never said these belts were awards.
Sean

[Brother John]

So belts only came into existance during the time period you mentioned. How did the keep thier tops closed before? I never said these belts were awards.
Sean
no silly.
I didn't say belts weren't invented before then.
I did say
really WAS nothing more than mundane clothing

But you said that they'd be 'given'. That's like saying that my daughter would sign up for dance classes and they'd hand her some leotards her first day.

they were just belts.
Getting darker would mean that they became shabby. Okinawans would have changed them out FAR before then.

that's what I meant.

Your Brother
John

[tellner]

Up until Kano Japanese people didn't practice empty-hand martial arts in special clothes. You trained in, well, your clothes. Kano-sensei invented the modern gi. We're told it was at least partly to have clothes that would stand up to the punishment of a Judo workout without getting torn. That's pretty near-feteched. Speculation has it that the basis for the gi was the Japanese fireman's clothing. It was heavy cotton and was soaked in water to protect it from sparks. The particular form of cotton belt was another of his innovations. There had been belts since forever, just like there had been jackets and pants. He modified them to his particular needs.

When Judo took off it became de rigeur to try and be as successful. A version of Kano-sensei's training uniform was adopted by Karate, Aikido and pretty much everyone since.

[Brother John]

Up until Kano Japanese people didn't practice empty-hand martial arts in special clothes. You trained in, well, your clothes. Kano-sensei invented the modern gi.

A version of Kano-sensei's training uniform was adopted by Karate, Aikido and pretty much everyone since.
EXACTLY.
The uniform was later elaborated on and the belts color became legion. Kano later relized that too many people put far too much emphasis on the "Black" belt, so he went back to white.
EVEN that was "mythologized" by many who said that "THat represents that Kano-Sensei returned to having the beginners mind."
silly...


Thank you Sir!!


Much appreciated

Your Brother
John

[Kacey]

It was, I believe, Jigaro Kano who first brought the concept of colored belts into martial arts as a way of compartmentalizing and codifying what he taught. It is easier to retain knowlege if it is divided into sections (this is what I need to know at white belt; this is what a green belt should know etc.) versus just passing down knowlege continuously.
However, each style and even country has put their own version on this, as is to be expected. I believe Chung Do Kwan originally had three belts-white, brown, and black. After Tae Kwon Do developed its own identity, different organizations included different colors. The Kukkiwon system is white, yellow, green, blue, red, and black. I want to say that this was based on the earlier Korean system of military rank. So the belt system itself is Japanese based, but the one used by the Kukkiwon is definitely Korean. I'm sure the ITF and Japanese styles have their own version. But the principle is the same.

The color system you listed is the one in use by the ITF; many WTF classes use the same colors, but many others use these colors and/or additional colors, including brown, orange and purple - I know this from experience, because I've had transfer students come in with all of those colors in addition to the ones you list, and they've all been WTF students - the meaning of the colors depends on the particular WTF association. Which colors they use seems to depend on then number of ranks they want to have between white and black belts (there are often extra ranks for younger students), how many ranks of red/black belt they want to have. Some use stripes, as the ITF does (stripes on color belts, in the ITF, are the color of the next belt), and some don't.

For Ch'ang H'on/ITF TKD, the number of ranks was what was originally set: Gen. Choi chose to have 10 gup (grade/color) ranks, because 10 is the smallest 2-digit number, and 9 Dan (BB) ranks, because 9 is the largest single-digit number. I'll have to check around to see where the colors come from, although given that Gen. Choi was a BB in Shotokan Karate, it would not surprise me at all to find that the colors came from there, and likely the basic meanings as well. The meanings are as follows:

White: Beginner, lack of knowledge of TKD
Yellow: Ground, to represent the foundation of knowledge of TKD
Green: Plants growing, to represent the growth of knowledge/ability
Blue: The sky, towards which plants grow, to represent the continuing increase in knowledge/ability
Red: Danger, to represent that red belts have the knowledge to kill, but not the control to kill, maim, injure, scare that BBs have.
Black: Knowledge, control, the opposite of white belt

[ArmorOfGod]

Here is a small mid-excerpt from a very good article at 24fightingchickens.com
It can be found in its entirety at http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/09/09/urban-legends-of-karate-belts/


Supposedly, the reason that you should never wash your belt is because originally all belts were white belts, and the color only changed as you got yours dirty. So, a white belt would turn green with grass stains, and then brown with dried blood and dirt, and finally black.
The Japanese karate founders took the uniform and belt system of karate from Judo, where the colorful belts were invented using dye, not soil and grass stains. The belt system has no documented period during which it consisted of little more than a white belt that changed colors due to lack of hygiene.
The fact that this legend also mentions grass stains points to its origin somewhere in Europe or the US, I believe. The Japanese, for the most part, do not grow lawns with Fescue or Bermuda grass. They have a very crowded set of living conditions, and just about anything that would have been a lawn is either gravel, flowers, forests, or rice paddies. I do not remember ever seeing a lawn while living in Nagoya, although I know they have them in Hokkaido. I don’t believe the belt system was developed in Hokkaido.
At any rate, the whole myth of the colors resulting from the belt rotting away is difficult to swallow - because it is disgusting! I hate to think what one would actually have to do in order to make a white karate belt turn black from soil and stains. I imagine mushrooms growing from a belt that consists of wet, slimy ooze that smells like sewage. Gross!

[Brother John]

OK
Now that was good.

Thanks Armor!


Your Brother
John

[ILBUNYON]

everybody's logic and understanding on the belt colour system is very reasonable, without a doubt true for certain Martial Arts styles. i found very similar history of the belt colours origin given from, Touch of Death; Red; tellner; in a website,http://www.kukikan.com/TSOBB.htm.

[PictonMA]

Info I've gathered from various and sundried places:

Kano Sensei promoted Shiro Saigo and Tsunejiro Tomita to shodan in 1883, however this was by certificate and not by belt. It wasn't until 1886 that Kano Sensei had yudansha wear black bels (and they were the old 'sash' styles as the Judogi hadn't been invented and Judoka were still training in kimono).

In 1907 Kano Sensei introduced the modern Judogi and obi (only white and black were used).

Sometime around 1930 Kano Sensei introduced the white / red alternating belt to denote high rank (6th, 7th, 8th dan), apparently white was chosen because it represented purity and red was chosen because it represented an intense desire to train and personal sacrifice. (White and Red play important roles in Japanese society and in Judo Kano Sensei had begun the first Red and White tournament in 1884.

Kano Sensei also later created a pure red belt that could be worn as an option for 9th and 10th dans.

I've read that at some point Kano sensei introduced the brown belt between white and black but I can't find confirmation.

Mikonosuke Kawaishi is generally regarded as the first to introduce various colored belts in Europe in 1935 when he started to teach Judo in Paris. Originally this included white, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple belts before the traditional brown and black belts. His reasoning in doing so was that he felt westerners would learn better if their was a more clear deliniation in progress using a defined cirriculum, much as Kano Sensei had begun with the original genesis of the mudansha / yudansha differentiation.

The modern karate gi and obi was first adopted by Funakoshi Sensei (and later pretty much everyone else) when the Dai-Nippon Butokukai required that, the adoption of the kyu/dan system and several other things before they would accept karate as a "real" martial art. Prior to this Okinawan karateka pretty much trained in their streat clothes and other koryo practitioners trained in kimono / hakama and mostly without obi and certainly not one of any colour signifying rank.

[IWishToLearn]

Tag

[Laurentkd]

Has anyone heard of using a red belt as the first belt rather than white? The idea being it is to show "danger" to other students, that this student is new with little knowledge or control and to watch out for them (both for your own safety, but also to help the student).
My instructor has said that he has heard schools doing this in the past and he likes the idea, expect for the fact that so many people know always look at red as a high rank, so it would be confusing outside our own dojang.
Any thoughts?

[Cirdan]

Has anyone heard of using a red belt as the first belt rather than white? The idea being it is to show "danger" to other students, that this student is new with little knowledge or control and to watch out for them (both for your own safety, but also to help the student).
My instructor has said that he has heard schools doing this in the past and he likes the idea, expect for the fact that so many people know always look at red as a high rank, so it would be confusing outside our own dojang.
Any thoughts?

In Wado Ryu it is quite common to use a red belt between white and yellow, however there does not tend to be any symolism attached to the colours. Red signifies "danger" in at least some TKD styles (see Kacey`s post), but it is usually a higher rank just below black belt. From what I hear red it is also used as a "junior black belt" some places, it is used for competition in Judo and there is of course also some styles who use it for very high ranking blacks.

Red belt can indeed be a bit confusing. At the time I used one I also wore my gi and belt when training in Kenjutsu. When I went from red to yellow belt my sword instructor wondered if i had been stripped of rank or something. :uhyeah: But hey, it is just a belt. Never cared much for belt mythology myself (I don`t wash it tough :wink: ) but others seem to like it. And who cares what the people outside the dojo think anyway? :ultracool

[10,000 Hit Combo]

I like belts. They holds my pants up. Colors are good too. My favorite color is black. When I earn the right to wear my favorite color I'l be very happy.

[DavidCC]

I like belts. They holds my pants up. Colors are good too. My favorite color is black. When I earn the right to wear my favorite color I'l be very happy.

I don't know what kind of crazy uniform you are wearing, but MY belt does NOT hold my pants up!

it holds my top closed.


that is the most overused cliche in MA I think.

[terryl965]

Has anyone heard of using a red belt as the first belt rather than white? The idea being it is to show "danger" to other students, that this student is new with little knowledge or control and to watch out for them (both for your own safety, but also to help the student).
My instructor has said that he has heard schools doing this in the past and he likes the idea, expect for the fact that so many people know always look at red as a high rank, so it would be confusing outside our own dojang.
Any thoughts?

No I have never heard of this.

[terryl965]

I don't know what kind of crazy uniform you are wearing, but MY belt does NOT hold my pants up!

it holds my top closed.


that is the most overused cliche in MA I think.


Yes it is and with elastic and a draw string who needs a belt