Judo Belt System

If you are familiar with martial arts you will no doubt be aware that of how colourful the dojo can be with all the various students wearing their various coloured belts signifying the progression on their journey through their sport of choice.

What you may not know is that this tradition of was actually started in judo and was first instigated by a japanese man called Mikinosuke Kawaishi around 1930, and that prior to this there were only two colours of belts - white, signifying a student; and black signifying a master or teacher.
The introduction of the coloured belts sytstem was one of many changes made by Kawaishi to the more traditional methods when he brought judo to European audiences to the in order to cater to the more western culture.

This multi-tiered system subsequently became known as the Kawaishi method and has since been adopted by every modern martial art.