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.

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

 

[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

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. 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
John

Don'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