Black Belt Subversion

Open-mind required, if your going to get miffed or upset by this post then stop here and leave to await the next article. This is about my personal feelings toward the black belt today which is not meant to imply that all systems, all dojo or all Sensei use the system in this manner or with the implied intent, etc.

When I decided to write this post I meant it to infer that the black belt of today's Western Martial Systems is one that lacks the integrity Kano Jigoro Sensei may have meant to instill in its usage and award in the late 1800's/early 1900's. The structure and meaning of the belt system which includes at its highest levels the coveted black belt to my mind has come to be corrupted into something it is not.

The establishment of the system was such that it didn't survive the tsunami that came about from its exposure to the military presence in Japan and Okinawa starting in the fifties through current use today. It took on a power of its own through a lack of understanding toward the culture and beliefs that caused it to be created and incorporated in Judo.

Due to an implied structure toward "power, authority, servitude, hierarchical and exploitive" this system became a means to achieve through circumvention of the traditional system of training and practice quick egoistic and prideful self-building grandiose dogmatic beliefs and culture. Note that is feeling is not indicative of all martial systems both Eastern and Western.

I speak/write in a very general way on this black belt subversion I perceive. There are many who have taken the use of the dan-e system back to a more traditional method that Kano Sensei may have intended. The difficulty in this as to both ways, traditional and subverted, it is hard to determine what the original intent was since Kano Sensei may not have documented it enough because in Japan, at that time and still today, Sensei tend to assume Japanese will perceive indirectly, i.e. not by spoken word but intuitively, what was meant for the dan-i system Kano Sensei created.

It has become difficult for the uninitiated or ill-informed to "see" the true symbolism that is represented by the black belt, the kuro-obi. I blame ourselves for our hurried excitement to achieve that coveted black belt quickly vs. through the slow diligent process. We "think" we have returned to it by the mere ideology that because a commercialized way of reaching a black belt over six or seven years we have achieved the true meaning but we may have missed the boat entirely.

Adding minimal time in grade, a military trait/process, along with criteria that originally did not come with martial system training and practice have added time that when truly analyzed ends up being much shorter than a date on a calendar. I feel it is a dedicated martial artists who spends hours a day vs. one who spends a couple of hours a week often sporadically that truly exemplifies a black belt vs. a product of a commercial endeavor.

In my view the black belt tends to be that symbol that has individualized meaning in today's martial communities, Asian and Western. It depends now on the culture, beliefs and perceptions of those individuals whereby the ones provided via second-person validation tends to take it in arena's that may or may not be conducive to its traditional origins and into a realm of money, power and servitude. One serves the master through a perception of authority, power and in the end "money."

I have encountered both, the few who if they presented me a black belt would have meaning and great significance in my mind while others who would present me one would only do so after I wrote a check and played some sort of certification game that is theirs and seldom acceptable to any or all others without first being certified by that system, etc.

It begs me to ask myself, can a black belt return to its origins? I believe it can and has already achieved a lot in that regard. There are those out there who are becoming more the "norm" vs. the others less inclined and that movement is meaningful and I consider authentic and traditionally valid. I have much greater hopes that this trend will continue. These are the folks who have achieved a balance between economic survival and adherence to a traditional form that speaks volumes to the coveted black belt once presented, earned and worn with dignity well earned. An oxymoron maybe when you perceive the more "Shintoist/Confucianist/Buddhist base of martial systems but we are human.