There are some aspects about our sport that are not clear enough, and we feel unsure about others, maybe, because we don't have enough information about them. Take the title of this article, for example. We are going to try to solve some of these doubts by commenting our talks to Mr. Naoki Murata, 7^th Dan black bell and director ofl Kodokan-Museum.

    Almost every judoka in the world has, at least once, worn a T-shirt where you can see the Kodokan badge. Most of us believe we know its meaning. I myself used to believe it represented the flower of the cherrytree ( some of my masters had told me so ), but other judokas claimed it was a lotus flower. Moreover, this theory is stated in some books too. Well, the truth is both are wrong.

    The judo Kodokan badge is not a flower. As we know now. This badge is made up of a red circle inside a red-edged white octagon. In October 1940, kodokan stated. The badge symbolizes the aims of this Martial Art and it means "indomitable spirit".

 * What do its colours and shape mean?    

The octagon represents one of the three sacred treasures of the japanese imperial court: The sacred mirror. This is so because the outer red line forms the eight angles of the dokio which resembles a bronze mirror similar to the ones used in ancients times.

The white inner side symbolizes pure spirit. Purity, in this Martial Art, represents soft white cotton or thin and delicate cloth which wraps he flame of passionate blood heart (the red circle).

The red circle means indomitable spirit. It stands for a ardent heart, "the spirit which burns like iron in fire", full of fidelity, passion and brevery. It is the true symbol of indomitable blood.

Another point to deal with is the meaning of the word JUDO. To start with, the Japanese characters, write this word with refer to two words with different meanings.

This kanji stands for "JU" and should be translated as "soft", "no resistance", "flexible", etc.

 This one stands for "DO" and it means "way", "way of life", etc. You should keep in mind that Japanese is read from right to left; therefore these characters are sometimes written in a different order from the one we have used. All ¨Martial Arts include DO as a part of their name and phylosophy ( Kendo, Aikido, Karatedo? ) The translation of the word judo, literally is "soft way". "DO" refers to the life or the way one has to go when we do this sport and the way we have to do it. In other words, a way of life or a life style.


    Judo, is a mental and physical education based on a combat discipline that helps you to discover and strengthen your own capacity to take them to your daily life. It was the first Martial Art to become Olympic Sport. It is also one of the most widely done sports in the world due to its educational side. It is a compulsory subject in the Japanese Educational System. UNESCO supports it and it has been chosen as university and school sport by the Culture and Education Ministery in Spain.

    It was founded by a young Jigoro Kano. Jigoro Kano was born 18th October 1863 in Mikage, a district of Hyogo, Kobe island. He was the son of Jirosaku M. Kano and his wife Sada. He used to do Ju-jitsu. He studied this sport with the aid of some of its best masters and he founded Judo on it. In February, 1882, he opens the first "Kodokan" gym in Tokyo. Kodokan means "house which shows the way". Kano became the fist Japanese person in the International Olympic Comitee, Secretary of the Education Ministery in Japan and, of course, a relevant figure in Japanese sports and education.

    Funny enough, he also founded the first baseball club in Japan. By the way, this sport is nowadays one of the favourite sports in the country and there is a very important professional league. He died 4th May 1938 onboard a ship called "Hikawa-Maru". He was coming back to Japan from El Cairo where he had represented Japan on an Olympic Assembly. Judo was spreading all over the world at this time.

    Let's remember Judo, as a school of life, has helped, not only its members but it also helped other Martial Arts creators like Funakoshi and Ueshiba, the founders of Karate and Aikydo, to enter the most relevant sports institutions. Some Judo rules were also assumed by masters of orther Martial Arts. For instance, the hierarchy of grades or betls ( a basic tool for these sports), which ranks the capacity attained by the pupil and shows his/her technical knowledge.

    This colour rank is called KYU in the categories prior to the black belt and it is known as DAN when the level corresponds to the different categories within black belts.

    The first Japanese masters who arrived to different parts of Europe before 1950 to teach Judo realized very soon that western people were less patient than their Japanese pupils. The trainings called for a motivation plus; therefore they adapted the different levels to the western character. It was master Mikonosuke Kawaishi, who lived in France, together with the European gokyo, who brought about the current belt system. Yellow (5th kyu), orange, green, blue, brown (1st kyu). This system was soon adopted by almost every other existing Martial Art. It was based on a colour grade that darkens from the white, yellow, etc..., to the brown, the belt immediately before the black.

    Grades were established to state somehow the skill level. Being a fight sport, levels offer us information about our opponent during a randori. In Japan, there are also two kyus divisions which differenciate between raw pupils and skilled pupils. Adults, in Japan, wear the blue belt for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd kyu (brown, blue and green) and kids wear a purple belt for the same levels. the white belt stands for the 4th and 5th kyus (yellow and orange) both for kids and adults.

    As for the program and ways to attain a black belt in the different countries, we can see there are many differences. In Japan, for instance, they favour efficiency in combat (there are line and non-stop combat leagues) to attain the minimum score; while in Europe the most widely used systen is similar to the one used by the Rfejyda, with competition and technical systems.

    Now, let's talk about the higher rank dans. First of all, Jigoro Kano, believe it or not, didn't have any dan grade. He was the founder of "Shihan" and his was the responsibility to authorize his pupils' dans.

    There's no limit as for Dans. The main reason to be given a DAN is to be active in judo. It is still a bit rare to be over one hundred years-old and when you become ninety, it is not easy to be "active" (wearing your judogui, teaching, attending technical comitees, giving lectures, in a word, doing judo). It is, thereby, impossible to be give a Dan over 10th.

    The seventeen judokas that were given a 10th DAN, by now, were:

    In January, 2006, Kodokan, for the first time in the history of judo, appointed three tenth dans on the same day, they were: Yoshimi Osawa, Toshiro Daigo e Ichiro Abe.

    Belt colours and their names in Japanese: