Black belt

In many martial arts, each practitioner's level is marked by the colour of the belt. The black belt is often the highest belt colour one can attain, and (in theory) proves a certain level of skill.

The black belt was 'invented' by Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, who first devised the colored belt system and awarded the first black belts in the 1880s. He only used white and black belts, and it wasn't until the early 1900s that the colored belt system of awarding rank was created. Many modern martial artists, however, mistakenly believe that the belt ranking system is an ancient aspect of traditional martial arts. In the Japanese arts, the further subdivisions of black belt ranks are called dan grades where higher numbers means higher rank. The korean arts have adopted the system, and even some Chinese arts nowadays have ranking systems with belt colour as sign on rank.

One common idea concerning the tradition of belts claims that early martial artists began their training with a white belt, which eventually became stained black from years of sweat, dirt, and blood. Unfortunately there is no evidence for this colorful story, so it must for now be relegated to the status of myth.

There is no way to compare belts and ranks between styles. In some arts, a black belt is quite easy to obtain while in others ten years of hard work is more of the rule than exception. It is a common belief that belts in budo arts are handed out more loosely in the West than in the motherland Japan, and indeed a sign of bad schools often is abundant black belt holders of low quality. However, in Japan rank often comes more or less automatically with time done and the black belt has little to do with the "master" level which westerners often think of then they hear the term "black belt".