How many Karate belts are there?
There are many different “styles” or “schools” of karate, and each can have its own belt system. In some of them it cannot even be said that white is the lowest and black is the highest. I took Keichu Ryu karate, and it went: White Yellow Green Purple Brown Black Red/white My friend is in Isshin Ryu. They don’t have the purple or the red/white. But each belt has divisions, marked by one or two stripes on the end of the belt in the color of the next belt. For example, a white belt in the second stage of progress toward a yellow belt would get one yellow stripe around the end of his white belt. But I don’t know if that is an official part of the Ishin Ryu belt system, or just something the sensei of that dojo does so the kids feel like they are making SOME kind of progress. The traditional Okinawan pattern is: White Yellow Green Brown Black Red/White Stripe (I studied Isshinryu for a couple years and they did have this marking in our dojo.) Red Typically there is a half way point between
