HISTORY
Gichin Funakoshi is known today as the father of modern day karate. He was born in 1868 in Okinawa. As a boy he studied karate under two masters, Master Itosu and Master Azato. In those days a master only took on a few students and the practice of the martial arts was still kept secret. When Funakoshi grew up he became a school teacher, training in karate all the while with both masters.
It was during this time, Okinawan karate emerged from its seclusion to become a legally sanctioned martial art. Funakoshi, knowing the huge benefits of the study of karate, introduced karate into the Okinawan public school system. In 1922, the Japanese Ministry of Education held a martial arts demonstration in Tokyo and Funakoshi was asked to introduce Okinawan karate to Japan.
Funakoshi did not get the chance to return to Okinawa. His demonstration made a powerful impression on the Japanese public; Funakoshi was soon besieged with requests to further demonstrate and teach his art. Eventually Funakoshi had enough students to open the first karate dojo in Japan. The dojo was called 'Shotokan' ('Kan' means 'building', 'Shoto' means 'pine waves', which was Funakoshi's pen name). In 1955, Funakoshi established the Japan Karate Association. Funakoshi served as chief instructor of the JKA until his death in 1957. Since then, Shotokan students have continued his spirit and teachings.
10th kyu white belt: signifies purity, a new beginning
9th kyu white with yellow stripe:
8th kyu yellow belt: a glowing color, a sense of achievement, a feeling of warmth. Helps the student to be friendly.
7th kyu orange belt: a very strong and confident color. It indicates mental knowing. The vision gets clearer at this grade. It is also the color of forgiveness
6th kyu green belt: A positive color of peace, harmony and love, the color of nature, and growth. Green helps to make one accept more easily.
5th kyu blue belt: A color of great healing of mind and body, and of vastness and expansion. The color of blue bring things back to normal.
4th kyu purple belt: A spiritual color of understanding. A creative color. It protects against negativity, and helps one to reach great heights.
3rd kyu brown belt: The color of the Earth, the source of all life. This is the color of selfless service. The grade is a grade of sharing.
2nd kyu brown belt with one black stripe
1st kyu brown belt with two black belt stripes
shodan-ho black belt: Indicates absence of light, which stands for ignorance and darkness. The student has not achieved total knowledge. They are now ready to learn.
shodan-10th dan black belt rankings
Keeping in mind that in Shotokan, no one becomes a 10th dan because number 10 is considered in Japanese to be perfect and Gichin Funakoshi never graded himself beyond 5th dan.
Train Hard Fight Easy