Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
In the past, regarding the U.S. Military’s participation in martial arts and especially during those formative years of the late fifties and sixties practitioners would train diligently for one year and achieve sho-dan, the first level of black belt. This was common and I tend to beleive driven from two aspects of which the first involved the limited tour of duty for most military while the second involves a commercial aspect, i.e., in one case it involved a lucrative contract with the military special services, now referred to as MWR, to teach all military who desire to train in karate - training.
As to the second, it was not long after the war and economically speaking times were tough and the type and amount of earnings from such a contract put those sensei in a much higher status economically speaking. As to the first, if you wanted a contract and its renewals you needed to provide what the customer wanted and in a lot of cases, if not all, that meant creating a program that would allow them to get a black belt in a typical one-year tour of duty.
This one-year model was considered authentic as well as traditional, we Americans didn’t know any better and with all the excitement of donning the proverbial black belt just before rotating back to the States for duty meant a lot. So, it is evident, on the surface, that many made black belt and those many immediately opened dojo in the States where that tradition continued - for a time.
I am aware of many who I have trained and practiced with that were one-year wonder black belts. In some, that never changed until commercialism took a stronger hold on the business side of karate and martial arts causing some creative changes to help retain more students, to retain them for longer periods of time and to create materials for testing purposes. Ranks, time in grade requirements, dojo socially driven group dynamics, testing requirements, etc., all justify longer periods of training and practice along with participation in things like seminars, tournaments and other pay-to-learn type programs add to that making black belt a longer and more difficult process (note: not necessarily challenging).
In another light, one of the many one-year black-belts told me his story and why his one-year black-belt led to more effort, greater discipline and more self-challenging self-imposed criteria to feel like his blackbelt actually would measure up to “meaning something.”
He first indicated he had dabbled in karate for a few years before arriving on Okinawa and taking up one style on a more regular, diligent and ongoing type of effort. His tour was also one year military and his dojo was military ran on one of the islands military bases. He spent hours a day, every day, for that one year. Originally, he felt and thought that if he achieved brown belt in that time it would be an achievement. He made Ik-kyu about two months before the tour would end and assumed that he would have to seek out his style at the next duty station to work toward sho-dan when just about fifteen days before his departure the sensei lined the students up to begin then before starting pulled a black belt out of his keiko-gi top, tossed it to the guy, said, “Your a sho-dan now,” then started the normal class. (Note: sensei was actually wearing a new black belt and the one tossed was his old, worn out, faded and frayed obi)
He told me that his view on this was sensei merely put a lot of pressure on him to actually continue to train hard just to actually qualify to wear the black belt. He knew he lacked the true knowledge, understanding and ability to be a dansha and after donning the worn belt from sensei felt not just the honor that sensei would allow the belt but created a sense of responsibility to continue on and actually learn what it actually takes to be a black belt. He said recently that it took him about another couple of decades to feel comfortable as a black belt.
What this article is trying to say is that regardless of the belt, the color or how long or short it takes to earn it, it means you truly have to earn it and that means also earning it is something personal, not what others may or may not think but how you feel inside yourself as to your qualifying to wear a black belt.
Many of today’s karate and martial artists wear black belts. Many of them are even young adults to even children and in many cases the overall meaning of the black belt has diminished into a commercial endeavor to create and earn money over something more intangible and unable to have a price tag applied.
It comes down to the intrinsic value of the black belt vs. the extrinsic value.
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