Embroidered black belts

[Shotokan-kez]

Thanks pacificshore thats a nice idea!

[IRKguy]

In my style, your black belt is just black. By then, everyone in the dojo should know who you are, and everyone knows who your instructor is. You're not wearing the belt outside of the dojo except at tournaments, and most people there do not know Kanji. Besides, if you were to include all of your instructors, there would be no room on the obi, and whom would you want to leave out?

A practical consideration: when tying the belt on in a hurry, after working out in a t-shirt or barechested--think Sanchin--having embroidery means you have to worry about which side of the belt is which.

If you want to respect your sensei, bow when he gives you the belt, put it on, keep training hard, and train his students. His training has left its mark on you, so this name on the belt is redundant.

[pers]

It never crossed my mind and I never paid much attention .I was too busy learning and training karate cause at the end of the day that is what it's all about ,belt is not going to help much outside when in trouble .

I bought one tokaido belt after grading shodan , one side it says shotokan and otherside Japan karate association all in Japanese . It still serves its purpose and that is to hold my Gi together !

[cathal]

In my dojo, they do both your name and the style in kanji. Once you get your BB, you are stuck with it. No stripes (eventhough you test for a higher rank). And we wear plain white uniforms for both color belts and BB's. I love that.

Our dojo is the same. One difference is that some of our Nidans will have silver embroidery, and when they go to Sandan they will change up to gold. To me the colour really does not matter.

[AT]

i seen some pics on the internet with green belts with embroidery. Is that cmmon?

[bushido_man96]

i seen some pics on the internet with green belts with embroidery. Is that cmmon?

Wow, I would not think so.

[Brandon Fisher]

No not to common. I know of a school that has done that for a long time but its not very common.

[Jiffy]

It never crossed my mind and I never paid much attention .I was too busy learning and training karate cause at the end of the day that is what it's all about ,belt is not going to help much outside when in trouble

I really don't see the logic in this way of thinking. Are you trying to say that if you have a belt that looks nice, you haven't trained hard?? It sometimes seems that people say what they think they should be saying to appear humble rather than what they actually think. I'm not saying that's the case in this post, but it does happen.

As far as I'm concerned, you have to wear the belt anyway (weather it's just to hold your gi together, or to mark grade), so what does it matter if you want it to look nice?? That doesn't take away from the training you have done, and it certainly doesn't mean that you haven't been busy training!

[Jiffy]

Just on an extension of that, I'm proud of my belt, and I'm not afraid to say it. I trained hard to get it, and no-one can take that away from me. But there is a big difference between being proud of your grade and training for the sake of grade.

If you have made an achievement, be proud of it, and when you wear that embroidered belt, wear it with pride. (pride, not ego). Just because you are proud doesn't mean that you are not humble and curteous!

[AT]

i'd be proud to get my shodan belt, and i'd definately embroider it to make it look nice. because imo it does make it look nicer.