Aikido Belt System

[bignick]

If I understand things correctly the colored belt system is a western invention. Our mindset sorta requires that we have incremental goals to chase after. As corny as it sounds...it's the journey not the destination that matters most to me.

On a related note...why are there different requirements for the hakama in some styles for men and women?

Others have touched on the kyu/dan system, but from my understanding the reason women are allowed/required to wear hakama is for modesty purposes. In his newest book, Dave Lowry talks about this.

In my dojo it's white up to 2nd kyu and then brown until shodan. Males can only wear hakama at shodan and above

 

[Stan]

Is it traditional in Japan that Hakama is a sign of rank or prestige? Or just an article of clothing?


If the latter, when did the hakama get it's current role as an award or privelige?


Sometimes we in America tend to take thing which we don't understand and assign them a meaning they didn't originally have. Like the way we mystify the word sensei.

 

[KOROHO]

Tha hakama has it's roots in the dress of the Samurai, primarily worn by horse-mounted warriors. Kind of like the cowboy's chaps.

Of course anything worn by the Samurai had a certain prestige about it, so later on, people adapted that to thier dress to show some status or prestige.

If you look at today's hakama design, it is large, long and flowing - hard to move in and not something you would want to fight in. So obviously the design has changed since the battlefield days.

Wearing the hakama was carried over into the public martial arts training and was worn generally by all who trained up until World War II. During, and immediately following the war, materials were scarce and expensive. People could not afford the material if they could find it. The only people wearing hakama were the seniors who already had them. Thus the start of a new tradition of seniors/black belts wearing the hakama.

The dogi that beginners wear now is essentially modified underwear.

 

[Aikironin]

read Dave Lowry's "in the dojo" on hakama and it will answer all your questions, and be able to end the myths regarding Hakama as status or whatever fable/legend you have heard

 

[bignick]

Exactly, at first everyone wore hakama, mostly because it was something everyone had. Then during/after WWII they made the hakama a requirement only for seniors. Because they had it, and producing a pair a pants took a lot less material than a hakama. Eventually, the requirement evolved into a privilege.

 

[suicideducky]

Just commenting on the main discussion of this article, i have recently started aikido, ki society something i think, but my dojo/style has a belt system consisting of 7 kyus and you start as a nothing, the belts and kyus are as follows
7, 6, 5 & 4 is a white belt
3, 2 & 1 is a brown belt
and then black belt and all the dans

only black belts may wear hakama like bignick and others said just above me.

and this is my 1st post!