Sometimes students will ask me several related questions: What’s the difference between a black belt sempai and a black belt sensei? Or, What is the difference between a shodan (1st degree black belt) and a judan (10th degree black belt) and all of the dans in between? Or, I’ve heard that a red belt is higher than the highest black belt, does Shotokan have a red belt?
Understand, I do not claim to be the ultimate authority on rankings in karate, but these are my thoughts. First of all, a sempai (or senpai) could be someone senior to you in the dojo/ministry. Conversely, a kohai could be someone junior to you in the training hall. I say could be, because in Japan, the sempai/kohai relationship is one of mentorship, like taking someone under your wing. Normally, I call the brown belts and above, the sempais of the dojo or ministry because they have an informal responsibility to help teach the color and white belts and to serve as good examples for all members of the group.
The question comes up then, how does a sempai become a sensei? I usually reserve that title for a black belt who has actually had the privilage of being the primary instructor of a dojo/ministry. For example, Sensei Wayne began his teaching career, opening up new dojos on the mainland for the old Karate Association of Hawaii back in the 1970’s. In the late 1970’s, Sensei Peter had his own dojo at an Air Force base in Michigan. I first became a sensei in the early 1970’s at Vandenberg AFB, CA, instructing at one of three dojos run by a Sensei Anderson of the AAKF. It’s a funny thing, but you can be a part of a family all of your life, or work for a corporation all of your life, or rent a home all of your life,but until you become a parent or a manager or a homeowner, you don’t quite experience the full responsibility that comes with the territory. Now that I think of it, Trisha’s a sensei, having started up and being responsible for her own karate ministry group.
It’s a pretty simple concept when you just look at a single dojo, club or ministry. However, in the karate world, you will hear of Shihans, Hanshis, Renshis, etc. I don’t pay much attention to these higher rankings and titles. Suffice it to say, as the groups of karateka grew into the millions and the number of clubs spread across the world, larger organizations felt the need for more stratified hierarchies and titles beyond sensei. Sort of like having a Captain command a company, a Lt Col command a battalion, a Colonel command a brigade, a 2 star General command a division, a 3 star General command a Corps/Army, and so on ad infinitum. (Some of the titles are reserved for those who have created their own styles or systems)
In the old days, after years of training, a master might deem a particular student to have learned the system completely enough to share with others. If the student also possessed the moral attributes and maturity, the master would present him witha meikyo or certificate and the student was free to teach others. When karate-do was created, we adopted the ranking system utilized by judo. In some of the older schools, students would remain white belts for years, until they might be deemed as ready to receive their dan, with no kyu rankings at all.
Dans in the black belt ranks can be a strange thing. I’ve seen some people who were very satisfied getting their 1st degree black belt and train at this level for the rest of their lives. I’ve seen some very high ranking dan holders from different schools who (I don’t mean to be judgemental, but…) didn’t seem to know very much karate. The shodan denotes a basic competency in Shotokan, however, the dan that really counts is the sandan (3rd degree)…by which time, one should know and be able to teach the whole system. Getting to the sandan may take 10-15 years of training. Beyond the sandan, the remainder of the rankings are sort of honorary…that is, these are based upon active time in training, with more emphasis on teaching and establishing new insights into the art to share with others. There is a saying that the difference between each dan rank is the equivalent of the difference between a white belt and a shodan, both in experience and in years. Therefore, when you see a 7th degree or 8th degree black belt from Asia, he or she is quite elderly indeed.
Anyways, it all boils down to who your particular instructor is. If you have a sensei who is knowledgable, can teach effectively, and help motivate you to do your best without being overbearing, well then, you are blessed indeed. If you also have the mentoring and example provided by good sempais, you are doubly blessed…and all of the dan rankings and titles in the world don’t count for much.
P.S. The Shotokan system doesn’t have a red belt…except for some dojos where they may use the red belt and yellow belt in some of the lower kyu rankings.