Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Recently, I began wearing a standard black belt again and this choice has raised some eyebrows and some questions, so I thought maybe I should explain.
Firstly, I consider the matter of higher ranks wearing either red and white belts or black belts to be simply a matter of preference – there are no hard and fast “rules” about this as far as I am concerned . In arts like Judo where red and white belts are commonly worn after rokkudan , it is still common to see folks prefer the standard black belt for daily training and to wear the red and white or “teacher-belt” only for special occasions. All in all, if somebody has been around that long they can wear whatever they want, in whatever art they want, and it is fine by me.
My own choice resulted when I noticed that in Aikido, red and white belts are very uncommon—If you do a lot of digging around you might find a small handful of folks wearing them who do not share our particular lineage. In my research, I found almost none, and the few exceptions were all individuals who also had high rank in judo or jujitsu. Even in cases where dual ranking applies, it is an uncommon custom; for instance, in all the films I have reviewed, I have seen no evidence that Mr. Tomiki wore red and white belt in his aikido training, nor has Ms. Miyake for that matter – in fact, one of the events that made me aware of how unusual it was occurred during Ms. Miyake’s visit to Oklahoma in 1997. I have a photo on my wall with all of us high ranked folks gathered around her for a picture— all sporting red and white belts but for one --only one individual was wearing a black belt and it was the Lady herself.
I never really questioned the red and white belt custom much even after 1997; our teacher preferred to wear red and white, so who was I to buck the trend? But once I became independent, I recognized that in some ways our aikido has existed in a sort of self imposed ghetto. It’s a mighty fine ghetto, mind you, but a ghetto none the less. I turned my thoughts toward wanting to be more interactive and inclusive with the broader aikido community, and I realized that customs of dress such as the red and white belt can really turn traditionally oriented aikidoka off. In the pursuit of wanting to make more friends in the larger community, I opted for the standard dress code. (I will probably eventually adopt the hakama as well, but I am slow to change, easy does it, one step at a time).
Since I have begun wearing a black belt, many of the other high ranks around here have followed suit, but again this has been a matter of personal preference and whatever they want to wear is cool by me.

I've actually wondered for some time why we existed in this sort of "ghetto" isolation from the rest of the aikido world. I had thought our techniques and/or principles were just too different from both the Tomiki world and the Ueshiba world. Maybe we're not that different?

I had also assumed that the rest of the aikido world didn't wear the "candy striped" belt because they required a lot more time to achieve the rokudan and higher ranks. Hmm. Something to think about...

Of course, I've always liked the hakama 😄

Hi gang. Glad to be here. Well, we all know there is a bubble of isolation, and I think a lot of it is to avoid condescension and arrogance from (and thus conflict with) True Believers. We are not part of the Ueshiba cult (different color koolaid), or the Tomiki "one true shiai" set either. One of the things Chuck Clark sensei did was participate in Aikido Friendship Festivals to re-integrate, find all the common ground. A friend told me once a "friendly" aikidoka tried to twist off Clark's wrist, and Clark popped him good with shomen-ate. Clark told the surprised enthusiast that if he was willing to injure Clark to get kote-gaeshi, that wasn't very friendly, so Clark was willing to pop him one. They had an understanding after that, that's where it ended, and Clark developed a lot of respect in Aikido and koryu circles. One must know when to stop (Kano said it is an important self-DEFENSE principle to stop when you have achieved victory).

Regarding dojo lingerie, I wear a hakama on Sat because I do Iaido first. It is part of the gear, like shin guards in hockey. Classical jodo guys wear kendo top & hakama for much the same reason. On Wednesday, I wear judogi for jodo and aikido because that's all that is called for. It's no big deal.

Some people get bent out of shape about red-and-white belts, but it too is a matter of custom. There was a story about LF Wilkinson sensei nixing a proposal to jazz up Fugakukai uniforms, because it seemed the fancier the clothes, the less serious the budo. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but that is what covers are for. So one must take into account what the first impression is saying.

Is it a sign of ego to wear/flaunt one's rank? I'm with Nick that it is up to the practitioner and the situation. I remember my first clinic in Chuck Caldwell sensei's Ghetto-kai -- seems there was an Ikkyu wearing a white belt, doing San Kata with all the black belts, which confused everyone. That may have been flaunting humility (spiritual materialism), so once again we are led to the middle path.

nice to see ya here jack!-- spiritual materialism and a bent out of shape ego --dead on -- you brought a chuckle to my day 😂

Personally, I prefer Chuck's pink gi with black-tassled sash/belt.

Long live the Aikido Fairy!

I had been interested in where the whole colored belt thing came along anyway, and had found these articles that were pretty interesting and informative, for any folks interested:

http://judoinfo.com/obi.htm

http://www.e-budokai.com/articles/belts.htm

The one from Judo Info has this line in it about the red and white belt: "The kohaku obi is often worn for special occasions, but it is not required to be worn at any time and the black belt remains the standard for all the yudansha ranks."

As far as Aikido goes, it seems like most schools use a white belt for all kyu grades (sometimes a brown for higher kyu grades) and then black for all dan grades. Like Nick mentions, I can't recall seeing any Aikido-ka wearing a red and white belt, actually. Guess it's mostly a judo/jujitsu thing.