Most belts and sashes serve two purposes
for the martial arts practitioner. The first purpose is purely
functional. The belt will tie and hold the uniform jacket(top)
to the body.
The second purpose is a little more obscure. One almost universally held idea
is that the martial
arts belt is used to identify the rank of a student. In general,
a
student
starts out as a white belt and then as they progress and attain knowledge/demonstrate
proficiency they will achieve new belts of a higher rank. As a general rule,
belt colors will darken until they reach the coveted black belt. Very rarely
will a belt rank translate equally between schools, even schools of the same
discipline.
Beyond the differences in rank translation, very few schools agree on the symbolism/meaning
behind the belt. Here is one school's idea of what the color/progression of belts
stand for:
White: Purity - The beginning.
Yellow: Action - Starting to learn moves.
Orange: Energy - Moves begin to become quicker/more powerful.
Green: Nature - Finding your natural abilities and strengths.
Purple: Mountain - You've reached a pinnacle and can clearly see the rest of
the journey.
Blue: Sky - Combining knowledge with the movements you have learned.
Red: Fire - Creating an unquenchable desire to consume as much knowledge as possible.
Brown: Door - Standing before the doorway, the last obstacle to reach black belt.
Black: Open door - You've opened the door to understanding. Now you are at the
beginning of true
knowledge.
This is just an example and most schools will have their own historical and symbolic
meanings as well as ranking systems. Check with your school.
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