Dan and Kyu

Karate obviously works with a level system starting from the worst (white belt) to the best (black belt). But in between these color markings there are centuries of traditions and meanings. All the belts which are not black belt are called Kyu. Kyu meaning class refers to the class that the student is in before he is an actual teacher. The Kyu grading system starts as a countdown, you begin and 10th Kyu and move onto 1rst Kyu. At the moment I am 3rd Kyu (purple) and have the 2nd and 1rst Kyu before I get the black belt (both of those are brown belts). After that you become a Dan which starts as 1rst as you become black belt. Dan in Japanese means a step or grade; at this point you can be considered a teacher and not a student, even though you never stop learning. The Dan counting goes from 1rst Dan to 10th Dan. Usually all of the Dans have the same belt (black) but in some styles a very high Dan can have some exotic colors. There is another very intrusting thing to learn about Dans. Depending on the contribution you had to the karate community, you might gain a Dan after you die. This usually occurs as a sign of honor and valor to high members of karate society. If you are a 7th Dan and you die you might just make it up to an 8th Dan. Another important thing to learn is that just because someone is a high Dan doesn’t mean he is actually better at fighting or teaching; very high Dans usually show status and contribution even though they still require tough exams that occur only in Japan. Often enough a 5th Dan is a very only person who looks very wise but surely can be beeten in a fight since they cant even move well. The greatest Dan alive for the wado-kai style is an 8th Dan which is a relative of the founder and one who trained for many years with the founder of wado-kai.