Belt Progression in your style.

[wouldbemaster]

It is interesting to see the variety of levels/grades different clubs use before black belt/1st Dan in particular when you think of what kyu means in japanese i.e. nine which we take as being the nine steps to black lots of threes and multiples of three in martial arts.

Obviously if it is a professional club then having lots of grades means more grading fees of course.

[Wa-No-Michi]

Slightly different spelling and Kanji - although the origins are very close.

Japanese translation for the word to describe someone in MA who does not hold the rank of Dan grade (or Mudansha) is Kyu or "級".

It literally means Rank Grade. The Romanjification though is "Kyu"

The number nine in Japanese in Romanji is "Ku" written as "九" in its kanji form.

Either way they are stages, but I think it would be wrong to say that Kyu as in Kyu grade = Nine stages.

Hope that helps.

WNM

[wouldbemaster]

I am humbled by your knowledge of japanese.

[sensei8]

Kyu is "boy" and Dan is "man"

OK, that's my 2 cents

[Wa-No-Michi]

Kyu is "boy" and Dan is "man"

OK, that's my 2 cents

I think this is more what they have come to represent.

"Dansei" is the Japanese for male (I guess you could extrapolate Dan from this), but i am not sure that "Kyu" means boy as "kun" is boy as far as I understand.

But I guess the Senpai / Kohai relationship is constant in your description.

WNM

[wouldbemaster]

Think it is important to remember that we are all on the same journey, admittedly some people go around in circles at times just because in a more senior rank you are someone who has gone before on the journey that does not/should not mean that they are less of a person i.e. more senior more grown up etc.

[neempies]

white 9th kyu

yellow 8th kyu

orange 7th kyu

green 6th kyu

blue 5th kyu

purple 4th kyu

brown 3rd kyu

brown 2nd kyu

brown 1st kyu

black

[wouldbemaster]

Seems different styles also have a different number of dan grade levels any comments?

[Shizentai]

Kyu is "boy" and Dan is "man"

OK, that's my 2 cents

I think this is more what they have come to represent.

"Dansei" is the Japanese for male (I guess you could extrapolate Dan from this), but i am not sure that "Kyu" means boy as "kun" is boy as far as I understand.

But I guess the Senpai / Kohai relationship is constant in your description.

WNM

You really have to look at the kanji and context. Japanese has a more limited sylablery than English and thus has lots of repeat usages of the same sounding word:

As you can see:

男性 ＝dansei = man/masculine

...is totally different from...

段 = dan = black belt rank

Also, both kanji dan (段) and kyu (級) mean basically just "class," "grade," "rank" or "step." There is no other meaning to my knowledge (well, not relevant ones anyway).

Lastly, the kanji for "kun" (君) not only means "young boy," but is also used for "kimi" or　a casual way of saying "you." I have no reason to believe there is any common origin (nor radicle similarity might I add) with kyu (級).

[Vierna]

I train Shotokan karate and in my club this is how the ranking goes:

White belt

White belt with yellow stripe

Yellow belt

Yellow belt with orange stripe

Orange belt

Orange belt with green stripe

Green belt

Green belt with blue stripe

Blue belt

Blue belt with brown stripe

Brown belt

Brown belt with black stripe (I have this one)

Black belt 1. dan

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