Buying a black belt

Passing your first dan is a very special day. It’s the day that you pass from provisional, to actual black belt, and the last belt you’ll ever need to buy. From now on, for the rest of your martial life, you’ll always wear the same belt.

There are lots of belts to choose from, and lots of traditions to observe or ignore. Here’s some help.

Cotton, satin, or silk?

	Silk		Cotton

Belts come in a choice of three materials, cotton, satin and silk.

Cotton is the cheapest, has a matte finish, and is very hard-wearing. It is also the stiffest from new, and takes the longest to wear in so you can make a tight knot. As it ages, black cotton tends to go dark grey.

Silk has a soft shine, and tends to take the dye better, thus it has a blacker look, that makes any text look brighter. Silk belts tends to be a little softer, and thus tie easier from the word go. They age very quickly, and give the impression that you have been wearing them far longer than you actually have. I think that this is an immature con, but a surprising number of people buy them for exactly that reason. There is also apparently a school of thought that says silk belts turn white quickly, which reminds you that you're still a white belt underneath. Sounds like justification for trying to look like an old master a year after grading to me. If you want to look like a white belt, wear a white belt. Other people buy silk because it’s a luxury option, and silk itself has strong links to the Orient.

Satin is a compromise between the two. It has a similar shiny look to silk but approaches the durability of cotton. It also retains its colour quite well. The main benefit of satin is that it doesn’t wear as quickly and costs less than silk.

Name brand, high street manufacturer or converted sensei belt?

The front of this cheap belt looks great, but look how messy the back looks

There is a lot of personal philosophy involved in choosing a black belt.

I know that many senseis like to remove the white strip from their black and white belt to denote a continuation of their training. I respect this, although I would argue that a black and white belt was not an indicator of rank, but of job title – it’s a sensei belt. I would also remind you that technically, your black and white is still the property of GKR, so you’ll need the permission of your sensei before hacking it apart.

Others like to use the black belt that they were awarded at shodan ho for similar reasons. The problem with both of these options, is getting them decently embroidered, and you’ll probably be limited to a high-street embroidery shop.

Other people buy their embroidered black belt on the basis of cost and convenience. I personally bought my first one for £10 including embroidery, at the local martial arts store. This is fine, but it’s the belt equivalent of buying no-name trainers at Primark, rather than buying Nikes or Adidas from Footlocker. You get exactly what you pay for – and that’s usually something that is functional but unattractive. For a belt that you’re going to wear for decades, isn’t it worth a bit of extra expense?

The next choice is to buy something a bit better from a quality supplier such as Karate Kid, or one of the other national suppliers. These belts will generally cost about £20 or £30 each. They’re better made, and look nicer.

The ultimate option is to buy a belt from one of the Japanese suppliers. Tokaido and Shureido are the two best known. Tokaido are based in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, and Shureido are based in Okinawa, the island where modern karate originated. I know it’s daft, but simply buying your belt from the birth-country of our art feels special. It’s like a tribute to the country that spawned karate.

Both of these companies do hand-made belts costing around £30-100 each. These belts are of undeniably superior quality to any other that I’ve ever seen. They are made of high-quality materials, and are much more robust than others. They are also assembled with real care.

The thing that most sets them apart is the way that the kanji is embroidered into the belt. Kanji is the text for the club name, and your name (if you want it). With all the other belts, the text is embroidered once the belt has been finished. This means that it goes right through both sides of the belt. This in turn means that one side of the belt looks very rough and unfinished, or at best has a mirror-image of your text. Some companies leave this reverse text showing, but what most do is to in some way disguise, the back side. This is usually accomplished using some kind of black paint or dye.

When you buy a belt from Tokaido or Shureido, the text is embroidered into a single layer of material before the belt is assembled. Not only does this eliminate the problem of text on the back side, but it also appears to facilitate a much finer quality of embroidery, providing more delicate and precise text.

Also, because the belts are stitched together after embroidery, the black cotton stitching is visible on top of the embroidery.

There is a distinctly different look between the two manufacturers. Tokaido text uses a relatively low thread density, and the text has an almost painted-on look that I really love. Shureido belts use a higher thread count in the embroidery, which makes for much clearer characters, but I think the embroidery looks cheaper. Look at the two and form your own opinion (picture to follow soon).

Name tag on or off?

Here's a black belt equivalent of the Nike logo

Although Tokaido and Shureido both stitch the name tags directly into the belts, it is possible to remove them. I have removed the Tokaido tag from my day-to-day belt because I don’t wish to serve as a walking advertising board for Tokaido. However, I have left the tag on my silk belt because I wish to declare my link to Japan at prestigious events. I realise that it’s not particularly logical – I just do it. Many other people like to advertise that they have an expensive belt. That’s their choice.

How long and how wide?

A standard belt is 4cm (about 1.5 inches) wide. This provides good tying without the feeling of cutting into you. You can get wider ones: senseis Jason and Caroline Smith both wear 4.5cm Shureido belts, and they look fine, and don’t hamper their movements. I would advise against going any wider.

As for length, the belt should be long enough to tie without restricting your breathing. Nor should the ends be like micro-knots with just a few inches sticking out. On the other hand, especially if you buy a heavy-weight quality belt, it should not be so long that when you perform front kicks, the ends whip up and poke your eyes out, as I saw just this week in class – laugh? I nearly wet myself!

I reckon that a good length is somewhere between the bottom of your gi and the top of your knees. Here’s a good formulae to use: ((2x your tummy size) + 30cms for the knot + (2x the amount you want each end to dangle down)) rounded up to the nearest 10cm. I have a 96cm waist and I like a 40cm dangle, thus: (2x98cm + 30cm + 2x40 = 306cm) rounded up, so I bought a 310cm belt.

Measure your tummy wearing a gi, and just below your belly button. Take a big breath in, bringing the air down to your tummy, and measure then.

Embroidery – Basic rules

This is how you wite Mitch in kanji These characters mean "beautiful & knowledgeable" which is really funny if you know Mitch...	This is how you write Mitch in katakana. The characters have no meaning apart from the sound they make when spoken.

When you become a shodan, you are entitled to have embroidery on your belt. It is optional, and you can choose not to. Sensei Anthony Ryan does not have embroidery on his belt.

The norm is to have the club name on one end, and your name on the other. You may not write any of the text in English.

The club name must be written in kanji. You can choose to write three characters – “Go Kan Ryu”, or six characters – “Go Kan Ryu Kara Te Do”. The three character version is more modern, and is apparently the direction that things are going. The six character version is more traditional. In addition to considerations of how modern or traditional you want your belt to look, you may also wish to think about which version best matches the characters spelling your name. If you name has 12 characters, the six character version of Go Kan Ryu will provide better balance.

I chose to write just my first name (“Mato” in Japanese), so I matched it with the three character version.

Depending on where you get your belt made, you may need to provide them with the kanji (Japanese characters) for the club name, and even for your own name. Here is a picture of the short version that you can provide to a belt manufacturer, and here is a picture of the long version.

These versions are written in the exact calligraphic (brush) style kanji that is used on the club badge.

However, most manufacturers will use their own brush font to write everything on the belt, so don’t be surprised if the end result is not exactly as you provided.

I have seen other styles used on belts, particularly a squared off, simpler version. This is mostly used by people who wish to embroider their own belts. I very much respect the philosophical, “made with my own hands” choice. Obviously, it is virtually impossible, embroidering through a thick belt with a needle and embroidery silk, to achieve the same subtlety as embroidery machines, but in some ways, it is much more in keeping with the philosophy of karate (no ego, keep it simple). Nidan John Eccott not only embroidered his own belt, but has also made those of both of his children, which seems like an intensely personal and very touching gesture.

This is GKR's preferred colour	This is amber - the colour Shihan wears	This is metallic gold

When choosing a colour, the official GKR policy is that it must be yellow-gold. However, Shureido and Tokaido belts are generally offered in metallic gold or an orangy colour called amber. There seems to be an equal split amongst zone directors about which of the two colours is preferred, although Shihan wears an amber Tokaido belt.

Whilst it is possible to have belts embroidered in others colours (white, green, red, etc), these are not acceptable GKR colours. If you turn up to a GKR tournament wearing a belt with your name on in English, or with incorrect coloured embroidery, you may be prevented from competing until you change belts. Sensei Joe Estrada once prevented an Essex boy from competing in a regional tournament unless the boy borrowed a plain black belt from someone else.

Embroidery – What to write

The shorter kanji is more casual, but the longer version is the traditional way to write the club name

The whole issue of what to write is unbelievably complicated, but it comes down to this: in general, most people write “Go Kan Ryu Kara Te Do” on one end, and their full name on the other. If they want their full name to be written in the same script (kanji) as the club name, they will probably have to pay extra for a translation service. If you do not pay extra, the belt company will use an off-the-shelf translation, which whilst phonetically similar to your name, may mean something wholly irrelevant to you (tall fast lionheart – or such rubbish). Such translations are known as “honorific”,  which means they say nice things about you. But it’s like a eulogy given by a priest who never knew the deceased – bland and generic, and completely impersonal.

For these reasons, those in the know often choose to have their name written in a different script called katakana. This looks completely different (much simpler), but the characters have no meaning. Almost all belt manufacturers include a free katakana translation service, and it’s much harder for them to get wrong. I suggest that you check your belt’s katakana using my character chart here, if you want to be sure they did a good job.

The issue of what part of your name to write is also complicated by the way that your name translates into Japanese. Some names (especially those with Ls in) sound like gibberish in Japanese. For example, my surname, Broomfield, is Beroomferedo in Japanese. That sounds ridiculous, so I refuse to put it on my belt.

Also, Japanese people use their family name first, so I would actually be Broomfield Mat. This leads to all kinds of additional confusion if you want to go completely native (to this day, I still couldn’t tell you if Funakoshi is Gichin’s first or family name). I think it’s probably best to use the Western version of first name followed by family name.

How long will delivery take?

Local embroidery companies and martial arts shops usually have quite a quick turnaround – often under a fortnight, and some even manage in less than one week. When you order a handmade belt, especially from Japan or America, it will usually take between a month and six weeks to arrive.

I suggest that you think about ordering your shodan belt soon after you receive your shodan ho.

How much will it cost?

Prices vary wildly. Tokaido seems to be the most expensive, and I think that their quality and service justifies the cost. Most hand-made companies will charge by the letter for kanji or katakana, and some may charge an extra translation cost as well. Of course, you will pay extra for silk or satin, and some companies also charge according to length. All of which adds up to mean that quoting an exact price is very difficult. A decent belt will run anywhere from £30-100.

If you are ordering from overseas, remember that UK customs will add a further 17.5% VAT, and excise duty of about 3%, and (and this is real daylight robbery) the post office will charge a compulsory handling fee (in addition to the postage) that may be more than the cost of the customs! These fees can easily add £20 or more if you are unlucky.

I don’t know if there is such a thing as customs in Australia, New Zealand, or the USA, or how it works if there is. If anyone can tell me, I’d appreciate it.

Tokaido - http://www.tokaidojapan.com/shop/

Shureido - http://www.karatedo.co.jp/shureido/english/e_index.html

Shureido USA - http://www.shureidousa.com/ (warning, although this company imports Shureido belts, shureidousa.com is not owned by Shureido, and they apparently do their own embroidery in-house)

Karate Kid - http://www.karate-kid.co.uk/