Live up to the Rank

Thank you all for the congratulatory wishes on my recent promotion to 6th Dan. I am very humbled to have achieved this promotion. I aspire to live up to this prestigious promotion and I promise to work hard to be a person worthy of this achievement.

This article was originally published in the January 1, 2023 edition of Spanish language magazine, El Budoka. This article was kindly translated into Spanish by Santiago Almaraz Sensei.

Live up to the Rank

by David Ito

Rank in the martial arts is something that we have to live up to. 

Shoushin (昇進) or “promotions” in Japanese martial arts have been around for a long time. However, it is only in the last couple of hundred years that it has been codified. 

In Japan, prior to the Tokugawa era (1603-1868), there was no such thing as budo as most martial arts were military systems that were only taught within families or within clans. Students of a military system were training primarily for the battlefield and so imminent battle made ability the sole focus of one’s training and so there really wasn’t really a need to systematize rank. 

After 1603, military arts became koryu (古流) or “schools” teaching military arts and these arts became available to people outside of clans and families. The is where the birth of rank and promotion begins. At this time, a dedicated student could receive a menkyo (免許) or an “authorization” to teach but achieving this approval was very difficult. Most teachers only gave out one or two menkyo in their lifetime. Later, a student who was truly proficient, dedicated and loyal could then receive a menkyo kaiden (免許皆伝) which meant “License of total transmission” and were then allowed to open their own school. 

In 1883, during the Meiji era (1868-1912), Judo teacher Jigoro Kano adopted the kyu (級) or “junior” rank and dan (段) or “senior” ranking system. This system of ranking was influenced by the strategy board game Go (碁) which had a stratified system of ranking its players. Later, Judo’s system of ranking was adopted by other martial arts schools all over Japan and Asia. Also, depending on one’s style of martial arts, after student ranks, there were also Shogo style teaching ranks or titles (称号) like shihan (師範), kyoshi (教士), hanshi (範士), renshi (錬士), fukushidoin (副指導員) and shidoin (指導員). 

One of the main reasons for the modern construct of ranking is that it was supposed to help students and teachers “understand” where they were in their development. Each specific rank was supposed to dictate a certain level of ability or development. 

The problem is that most student misunderstand rank and promotion. Often times, when a person is promoted, they either feel guilty because they don’t feel they deserve the rank or they become egotistical because they think they are entitled to it and overestimate themselves.  

When I was a student, Rev. Kensho Furuya had two basic points of view of how a martial arts students should look at promotions. On one hand, Furuya Sensei would say, “A student must become the rank that they are promoted to.” Another thing Sensei would say was, “Students earn their ranks long before they get promoted.” As a student, I didn’t really understand and thought that Furuya Sensei was just being contradictory. Now as a teacher, I totally understand why he made these statements.

Some students don’t think highly of themselves and being promoted feels embarrassing because they either think that they don’t deserve the rank or that their ability falls well below the rank. For the student who feels this way Sensei would motivate them by promoting them and say, “A student must become the rank that they are promoted to.”

For a student who thinks highly of themselves, Sensei would make them wait to be promoted so that they can learn humility and say, “Students earn their ranks long before they get promoted.”

Essentially, both of those statements really mean the same thing. They both are about “becoming.” Regardless of how well we did on the test or how we achieved the rank, we must live up to that rank. 

With each rank or promotion there is a standard that is commensurate with that rank. It should be a given that all ranks should be accompanied by some level of physical competency, but that isn’t the only qualification. More than physical capability, each rank should come with a sense of responsibility or as Voltaire put it, “With great power comes great responsibility.” In other words, a person who is 6th dan should act like a person who is ranked 6th dan. 

Poor self-confidence or self-esteem are concepts that many of face not only in the martial arts but in life too. Martial arts training can help to build our confidence or self-worth and how it does this is by teaching us to put in the work. If a person has the mindset that they must “become the rank that they are promoted to,” then they would work hard to “be” that rank. Thus, with hard work and time, we will become that rank and do that promotion justice and build something that no one can ever take away from us.

One of the biggest problems with promotion is entitlement. With entitlement, we think that being given rank means that we are given something which makes us special and with that attitude, our egos flare up. We often think that attaining rank means that a person has arrived or that they have somehow made it. From the outside looking in, most think that a black belt means that we have become invincible or as the old joke goes, “That our hands are now registered as deadly weapons.” Mr. Miyagi jokingly said in The Karate Kid, “Belt means no need rope to hold up pants.” He was poking fun at the modern student's desire for rank because he knew that, for the most part, rank, titles, and colored belts mean nothing. Thus, if a person adopts the mentality that they must “earn their ranks long before they get promoted,” then they would be less likely to become egotistical. 

With every advancement and level reached, we are supposed to be living the Way of our martial art more and more. For instance, a person who is 5th kyu has less responsibility and expectation than a person who is 5th dan, but they still have responsibility nonetheless. Furuya Sensei likened the discipline that a high-ranking martial artist must have to the rings on a tree. He said, “The closer you get to the center, the tighter the rings get.” Rank does not come with entitlement; it comes with responsibility and that is why getting a promotion is something that we have to live up to.

Read the Spanish version here: El Budoka