段位 Dani / Ranking System
The keikōgi, the ōbi as well as the ranking system found in karate and most Japanese martial arts were introduced by the founder of Judo, Kano Jigoro (嘉納 治五郎; 1860 – 1938), in the 1800s. All these were first adopted into karate-do in 1924. Kano Jigoro invented the keikogi himself, whereas he adapted ranking system from the board game generally known as Go. The board game is known as ‘Igo’ (kanji: 囲碁or 碁, hiragana: いご) or ‘Go’ (kanji: 碁, hiragana: ご) in Japanese, ‘Wéiqí’ in Chinese (traditional: 圍棋, simplified: 围棋), and ‘Baduk/Pa̠duk̚’ in Korean (Hangul: 바둑).
The first Go rankings were described as Jiǔ Pǐn Zhì (九品制; Nine-rank system) in 3rd century China in a book about the various cultivated arts of ancient China titled Yì Jīng (艺经; Classic of Arts), written by Hán Dān Chún (邯郸淳; ca. 130 – ca. 225). The system was loosely based on the Jiǔ Pǐn Zhōngzhèng Zhì (九品中正制; Nine-grade controller system) used at the imperial court to rank the importance of officials. The teaching and rankings of Go was formalised in the 17th century by the Japanese.
The Japanese martial arts ranking system is referred to as the Kyū (級, rank) and Dan (段, degree) system, or as a whole, the Dani (段位, grade) in both the board game and martial arts. In martial arts, the ranks are represented by the colours of the obi starting with the white belt. Lighter colours represent lesser experience, hence lower rank. While darker colours represents greater experience hence higher rank.
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| Jigoro Kano (kanji: 嘉納 治五郎, Japanese: Kanō Jigorō; 10 December 1860 – 4 May 1938), founder of Judo (kanji: 柔道, Japanese: jūdō; literal: gentle way) |
Different ryūha tend to have different colours to represent the kyū, but generally most start with Rank 9 as white, followed by Rank 8, up to Rank 1, where the smaller the kyū number, the higher the Rank. This is followed by 1st Degree black belt, 2nd Degree and onwards, where the higher the Dan number, the higher the Degree. The colour ranking system shown below is as practiced in M.A.S.K. (Malaysian Association of Shito-ryu Karate-do):
| KYŪ/DAN (English) | KYŪ/DAN (Japanese) | COLOUR |
|---|---|---|
| 9th kyū (rank 9) | kukyū (九級) | white |
| 8th kyū (rank 8) | haopkyū (八級) | yellow |
| 7th kyū (rank 7) | nanakyū (七級) | green |
| 6th kyū (rank 6) | rokukyū (六級) | blue |
| 5th kyū (rank 5) | gokyū (五級) | purple |
| 4th kyū (rank 4) / Brown 4 | yonkyū (四級) | brown |
| 3rd kyū (rank 3) / Brown 3 | sankyū (三級) | brown |
| 2nd kyū (rank 2) / Brown 2 | nikyū (二級) | brown |
| 1st kyū (rank 1) / Brown 1 | ikkyū (一級) | brown |
| 1st Dan (1st degree) | Shodan (初段) | black |
| 2nd Dan (2nd degree) | Nidan (弐段) | black |
| 3rd Dan (3rd degree) | Sandan (参段) | black |
| 4rd Dan (4th degree) | Yondan (四段) | black |
| 5rd Dan (5th degree) | Godan (五段) | black |
Note: The Dan title and colour continues up to as many Dan the ryūha implements.
Some schools apply white stripes at one tip of the brown belt to represent their kyū, i.e. 4 white stripes to represent 4th kyū, 3 stripes to represent 3rd kyū and so on. Another practice is applying gold stripes at one tip of the black belt to represent their Dan, i.e., 1 gold stripe to represent 1st Dan, 2 gold stripes to represent 2nd Dan, and so on.
