4. Belts & Rank
In karate, belts (called “obi”) are used to signify a student’s rank, ranging from a white belt for beginners to a black belt for advanced practitioners. The colors, and their order, differ from school to school, but the ranks are broadly divided into two groups, “dan” grades and “kyu” grades. “Dan” grades are black belt ranks and count upward, while “kyu” grades are beneath black belt and count downward.
This can be really confusing, especially if you try to compare between schools, because there’s very little consistency. The rest of this article will help you understand, but the only thing that really matters is how your school does it.
Colored Belts
Students below black belt are referred to as “mudansha” (meaning “unranked people”) or “kyudansha” (meaning “people with kyu ranks”). They begin at 10th kyu, with a white belt, and work “up” towards 1st kyu.
Which colors are used, and in which order, differs from school to school. In our school, for adults, it looks like this:
| Belt Color | Kyu Grade | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| White | 10th kyu | “Jukyu” |
| Yellow | 9th kyu | “Kukyu” |
| Orange | 8th kyu | “Hachikyu” |
| Blue | 7th kyu | “Shichikyu” or “Nanakyu” |
| Green | 6th kyu | “Rokkyu” |
| Purple | 5th kyu | “Gokyu” |
| Purple | 4th kyu | “Yonkyu” |
| Brown | 3rd kyu | “Sankyu” |
| Brown | 2nd kyu | “Nikyu” |
| Brown | 1st kyu | “Ikkyu” |
Notice that the colors change for every grade at first, but then students wear a purple belt for two grades and a brown belt for three grades. Some schools add stripes to tell these grades apart, but many don’t, meaning you have to “just know” which brown belts are at which kyu grade.
Because different schools do this differently, it’s much more important to know your kyu grade than it is to know what color belt you’re wearing. For example, a red belt might be 8th kyu in one school, 1st kyu in another, and 9th dan in another.
Again, there really is no consistency from school to school. Some schools have 12 kyu grades and some have only 5. Some put purple before green. Some use stripes to denote “half” ranks, or children’s ranks. Again, all that really matters is what your school does.
Black Belts
After passing through the kyu ranks, students are tested for their first “dan” grade and and are (hopfully) awarded a black belt, becoming “yudansha” (“ranked students”). But the journey doesn’t end there, because there are varying degrees of black belt. That’s why you’ll hear people referred to as a “3rd dan” or “3rd-degree black belt.”
Some organizations only award up to 5th-degree black belt, while many go up to 10th. Likewise, some styles require you to test for each dan grade while others test through 5th dan and award the rest for meritorious service. Most follow a pattern that looks something like this:
| Dan Grade | Japanese |
|---|---|
| 1st dan | “Shodan” |
| 2nd dan | “Nidan” |
| 3rd dan | “Sandan” |
| 4th dan | “Yondan” |
| 5th dan | “Godan” |
| 6th dan | “Rokudan” |
| 7th dan | “Shichidan” or “Nanadan” |
| 8th dan | “Hachidan” |
| 9th dan | “Kudan” |
| 10th dan | “Judan” |
So how can you tell what “degree” black belt someone has?
Some styles add stripes to the tips of thier belts so you can tell by looking, and some award red-and-white belts, or red belts, for grades above 5th dan, but most styles dan graded practitioners continue to wear the same black belt, giving no indication … so you just have to know.