Editing Judo (section)

==Rank and grading==
{{Main|Rank in Judo}}
[[File:Judo children.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Two children training in [[judo techniques]] ]]
Judo is a hierarchical art, where seniority of judoka is designated by what is known as the {{nihongo3|[[kyū]]|級|kyū}} -{{nihongo3|[[dan (rank)|dan]]|段|dan}} ranking system. This system was developed by Jigoro Kano and was based on the ranking system in the board game [[Go (game)|Go]].<ref name="Go Ranks">{{cite web |title=Go Ranks |url=http://mechner.com/david/go/kyu.html |website=Mechner |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-date=19 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219101630/http://mechner.com/david/go/kyu.html }}</ref>

Beginning students progress through kyu grades towards dan grades.

A judoka's position within the kyu-dan ranking system is displayed by the color of their belt. Beginning students typically wear a white belt, progressing through descending kyu ranks until they are deemed to have achieved a level of competence sufficient to be a dan grade, at which point they wear the {{nihongo3|[[Black belt (martial arts)|kuro obi]]|黒帯||black belt}}. The kyu-dan ranking system has since been widely adopted by modern martial arts.<ref name=judorank>{{cite web |last=Ohlenkamp |first=Neil |title=The Judo Rank System |website=JudoInfo.com |date=March 25, 2007 |url=http://www.judoinfo.com/obi.htm |access-date=October 15, 2007 }}</ref>

The highest black belt ranks  have no formal requirements and are decided by the president of the Kodokan. Kano Jigoro's grandson [[Kano Yukimitsu]] served as the fourth president from 1980 until 2009. As an educator by profession, Kanō believed that there should be no end to an individual's learning, and therefore no limit to the number of dan ranks. As of 2011, [[List of judoka#Highest grades|fifteen Japanese men]] have been promoted to {{nihongo3|''jūdan''|十段||10th ''dan''}} by the Kodokan;<ref name=judorank/> the IJF and Western and Asian national federations have promoted another eleven who are not recognized at that level of rank by the Kodokan. On 28 July 2011, the promotion board of USA Judo awarded [[Keiko Fukuda]] the rank of 10th ''dan'', who was the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level, albeit not a Kodokan-recognized rank.

Although ''dan'' ranks tend to be consistent between national organizations there is more variation in the ''kyū'' grades, with some countries having more ''kyū'' grades. Although initially ''kyū'' grade belt colours were uniformly white, today a variety of colours are used. The first black belts to denote a [[dan rank]] in the 1880s, initially the wide obi was used; as practitioners trained in [[kimono]], only [[white belt|white]] and black obi were used. It was not until the early 1900s, after the introduction of the [[judogi]], that an expanded colored belt system of awarding rank was created.<ref name=judorank/> Written accounts from the archives of London's [[Budokwai]] judo club, founded in 1918, record the use of coloured judo belts at the 1926 9th annual Budokwai Display, and a list of ranked colored judokas appears in the Budokwai Committee Minutes of June 1927. Kawaishi visited London and the Budokwai in 1928, and was probably inspired to bring the coloured belt system to France.<ref name=coloredbelts>{{cite web |last=Callan |first=Mike |title=History of the Grading System |website=ResearchGate.com |date=May 2015 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299604160 |access-date=March 6, 2020 }}</ref>