History of aiido dan
History
Dan rank system was invented by Honinbo Dosaku, professional go player in the Edo period. Prior to the invention, top-to-bottom ranking was evaluated by each handicaps and tended to be vague. He valued then highest title holder, Meijin at 9 Dan.
Dan ranks are applied to martial arts by Kano Jigoro, the founder of judo. Kano started the modern rank system when he awarded shodan (the lowest dan rank) to two of his senior students (Shiro Saigo and Tsunejiro Tomita) in 1883. Even then, there was no external differentiation between yūdansha (black belt ranks) and mudansha (those who had not yet attained a grade). Kano began the custom of having his yūdansha wear black obi (belts) in 1886. These obi were not the belts karateka and jūdōka wear today — Kano had not invented the jūdōgi (judo uniform) yet, and his students were still practicing in kimono. They wore the wide obi still worn with formal kimono. In 1907, Kano introduced the modern jūdōgi and its modern obi, with white and black belt ranks.
Still it wasn't Dr. Kano who really invented the kyu/dan system. When Jigoro Kano developed judo he didn't have to look far to come up with the ranking system. He simply borrowed the system in use at the Japanese public schools where belts were used by different athletic departments, most notably for ranking swimmers. [citation needed] And in the 17th century Dosaku (1645–1702) a grand master of the board game Go introduced the kyu/dan system as a method of handicapping the game.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_rank
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