Where did the color of the ranks (belts, obi our sash) come.

[yireses]

Where did the color of the ranks (belts, obi our sash) come from, or why or who invented it and why? Thanks!!!

[White Warlock]

From my sources, i understand the colored belts originated in Britain on or about 1953. The specific reasons for 'why,' are somewhat fuddled in a miasma of people trying to take credit (or blame) for it. Jigoro Kano (founder of judo) was the first 'Asian' to have implemented the belt ranks of black belt for experts and white belts for everyone else (no colors inbetween). I understand that, back then, it took judokas approximately 12-20 years to obtain black belt status. Prof. Kano implemented it in 1886 or 1887, and it is believed he based it on the fact that expert swimmers in Japan wore black ribbons, while student/amatuer swimmers wore white ribbons... or some such drivel.

[White Warlock]

Here's an excerpt from Don Cunningham's thesis on the subject:

 

• Many stories abound regarding the honored black belt in various martial arts styles. The one most commonly heard is that the novice martial artist traditionally started with a white belt. As he trained and practiced over the years, though, the belt became soiled, first turning brown and ultimately black as he perfected his martial arts skills. Notwithstanding the extraordinary metaphor provided by this charming bit of folklore, unfortunately, it has no foundation in truth. Colored belts were never part of any ancient martial arts tradition.

His well written and fully documented thesis could be read in total here - http://www.e-budokai.com/articles/belts.htm

[Batman]

i thought it goes like this:

 

originally there were only two colours. white and black. everyone stays with white until they're good enough for black. the black came from when the white belts worked so long and hard that their white belts became black from all the dirt and blood.

 

and the colours came from judo. karate should follow the normal colours from judo, but lots of people that start their own schools think they can mess around w/ the belts. sheesh

 

and last night i had chow fun and the day before that i had a ham sandwich....oops wrong box i'm typing into. oh well i guess i'll just hit submit to see what people would say after this

[White Warlock]

Batman, read the post just prior to yours.

[JerryLove]

The modern color system, as seen in most Japanese and Korean arts comes from Kano in (IIRC) the late 19th or early 20th century.

 

There is no formalized system of ranking for the majority of the Chinese arts (this is the Chinese forums), so I couldn't speak of a univeral origin.

[Drunken Monkey]

especially seeing as coloured cloths were expensive back in the day...

 

wearing yellow/gold was banned cos only the emporer could wear that colour (or his mum or dad).

 

(a certain) blue+purple was reserved for government officials.

 

red was a celebratory colour.

 

white was for funerals.

 

brown was regarded as the cloth for commoners....

[aefibird]

Do most Chinese styles now incorporate belt/sash rankings, or is still a 'minority' thing within Chinese martial arts?

[Drunken Monkey]

i haven't seen many schools around me that use a belt system.

 

i know of one wing chun place that uses yellow-red-black to denote what form you have learnt but it's not like they have a strict syllabus or big formal grading session to follow.

 

the belt is more or less a reminder to the sifu of what you know or don't know.

 

i do know that the 'original' schools in hk don't use belts and neither do (most of) their 'offspring' in the uk.