Belts & Rank

How many belts are there?  What are the colors leading up to black belt?

Since the introduction of the belt system, which was first used in Judo, prospective students have held a fascination with the various colors that martial arts practitioners wear around their waists.

As flashy as a colored belt might be, it's the rank that the belt represents which is most important.  In Traditional Shotokan Karate, there are twenty ranks...  Ten lower ranks and ten upper ranks.

Each lower rank is called a Kyu.  10th Kyu is the lowest, and 1st Kyu is the highest.  Each upper rank is called a Dan.  The ordering is reversed, and 1st Dan is the lowest, and 10th Dan is the highest.  The Kyu ranks are represented with colored belts, beginning at white and ending at brown, and the Dan ranks are all represented with a black belt.

The guidelines for what color represents each Kyu may vary from one dojo to another.  Standard Shotokan practice always puts White at the beginning, brown just before black, and black representing all the Dan ranks, but all the Kyu ranks between white and brown can be different.

Some Shotokan Dojos use only a white belt, a  green belt, a brown belt, and a black belt.  White represents 10-7th Kyu, Green represents 6-4th Kyu, Brown represents 3-1st Kyu, and Black represents all ten Dan levels.  Other Shotokan Dojos prefer to uses as many colors as possible to represent each Kyu rank.  It's personal preference and often decided by the instructor.

I like to see as many colors as possible, because it can be confusing when so many students share the same color, but are in actuality, different ranks.  At Perro Shotokan Karate, our belt colors are as follows:

10th Kyu - White Belt
9th Kyu - Yellow Belt
8th Kyu - Orange Belt
7th Kyu - Red Belt
6th Kyu - Green Belt
5th Kyu - Blue Belt
4th Kyu - Purple Belt
3rd-1st Kyu - Brown Belt

1st - 10th Dan - Black Belt