Karate Belts: A Major Part Of The History Of Martial Arts

By Author: Andrew Bui
Total Articles: 1224
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"The arrangement of ranking practitioners of martial arts using the color of their obis or karate belts, is one of the sport of karate's most significant and well known, though often misunderstood, practices. There is a lot to know about these simple sections of cloth and what they are intended to represent, from how they will help you tell a novice martial arts student from a well trained master to the many different myths that some karatekas have made up over the years.

Each color of the obi represents hours of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, it is not an easy feat to move up the ranks in martial arts and doing so is something of great honor and pride, a triumph that demands respect. In order to move from one rank to the next, students are challenged to perform predetermined tests of strength and skill or could even be demanded to combat another student that is considered their equal or even their superior; there is no set rule for how to achieve the next rank.

The obis are a symbol that demand honor and respect, when you see someone who has acquired a colored belt you know that they have worked hard ...
... to do so, typically the darker the belt is, the higher ranking they are. In the beginning the belt did serve a functional purpose, but many years ago, a master known as Jigoro Kano determined that there should be a better way of marking practitioners by their rank and skill set and so he developed the colored obi practice at his dojo and it eventually spread to encompass the sport as a whole.

There is actually no set rule regarding which colors will be used for what level of skill, because instead of honoring a universal system, the master of each dojo is responsible for deciding which colors he will used for his students as well as what they must do to earn them. However, for the overwhelming majority, the shades go from white to black, with many colors in between, the progressive darkening of the belt, as well as the stripes, demonstrate an increasing set of skills.

Some people believe that the original significance of the shades was that karate belts that were black were such a color due to years and years of being worn in training without being washed, this may or may not be true, but because of this story some traditionalists choose not to wash their belt. The truth is that they are simply pieces of colored strips of cloth that are worn like badges of honor to represent how far you've progressed in your martial arts training, but they are still very fascinating, none the less. "
If you want to see some expert opinions about martial arts gear then you can check on Karate Belts or you might want to check also on Karate Equipment.