Aikido belts



The philosophy of aikido

Aikido is an atypical martial art, perhaps one of the least martial arts given that it declares human unity as its goal. It is well known that, despite the fact that its founder Morihei Ueshiba was a great expert on various martial arts and a real warrior, aikido is based on a peaceful philosophy based on self-knowledge and self-control.

In fact, the master Ueshiba was also an initiate and a practitioner of various spiritual and occult practices related to the Shinto sect Omoto-kyo, through which he had various spiritual experiences that led him to the foundation of aikido, or the path of being one with the energy of life . Today we know that the practical effectiveness of aikido is limited, and this is due to the absence of fights and competitions, an element that is part of the philosophy of home that has as its purpose human unity.

Excellence according to aikido is not achieved simply by defeating the adversary or controlling it, but by controlling oneself and preventing the opponent from harming both himself and others. In addition to the practice of a particular footwork, of various traps and projections, and of the management of the kinetics of the bodies there are techniques of search for inner harmony: meditations, conentranitions, work on the mind, safeguard of health, study of the principles of aikido, care of the dojo, respect of the companions .

The history of aikido belts

There is a hierarchy of aikido belts like in almost all martial arts systems. In general, we tend to believe that the white belt is that of the beginner, the colored ones represent the intermediate passages, and that the black one represents the highest degree. This is not exactly the case in aikido.

At first, there were only two colors for master Ueishiba, white (mudansha) and black (yudansha). White was the belt of apprentices and was divided into 6 degrees or kyu, from the 6th grade, the lowest, up to the second; then follow the 10 degrees or dan of the black belt, which develop in the opposite direction, from the first dan to the tenth, the highest.

This changed with time, especially when aikido reached the West, it was in fact not easy to distinguish a white belt of the sixth kyu, a real beginner, from a second kyu, a black belt, since both wear a white belt. It was then that we thought of giving color to the various kyus : white for the sixth kyu, yellow for the fifth, orange for the fourth, blue for the third, brown for the second, and black for the first kyu that corresponds at the first dan. The second dan of black belt has a thin golden strip while the third gives a red stripe.

Differences and influences in aikido

All this differs in detail according to the federation, the school and the family of original, in fact over time the schools have also differentiated themselves in the hierarchical aspect and it is impossible to understand who is or is not right. The fact remains that the introduction of colors beyond white and black is quite recent, and reflects the influnza of similar martial arts such as judo and jiu jitsu, where we find many colors depending on the schools, including the green, red, light blue, purple, white and red, white and yellow, white and purple, yellow and orange, orange and green, green and blue. In the beginning the basic philosophy was different:

Osensei Ueishiba, or Great Master Ueishiba, did not want to link the color of the belts to the degree of experience of the student, which, beyond the color of the belt, was given by a special parchment delivered by the master himself. This tradition has remained popular in many Japanese schools, while in the West almost all the schools use colored belts.

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