by Nick Lowry
Rank is in the eye of the beholder
Where do high ranks come from?
what makes a high dan rank in budo, a high dan rank?
Is it technical ability? teaching ability? contribution to the art? What does being ranked as a godan, rokudan, nanadan, hachidan, kudan, judan mean?
Who decides its meaning? and why them?
How does the culture of ranking or process of ranking at these high levels help or hinder the evolution of the art form itself? does it exert a pressure on the art? if so, is that pressure beneficial or detrimental?
Is rank useful in the context of an art?
How so?
Is high rank a symbolic form of reputation?
If so can it be meaningfully reduced into a test of some sort?
Why even establish a static symbol for a dynamic relational process like reputation?
Does such rank hold value? should it be treated as a commercial product? should rank have price tags? why or why not? how does the confluence of money and rank effect the process?
What happens when the social construct of rank becomes confused with identity? when people begin to identify with a rank?
A short story…
A long time ago in a dojo far far away…( in a dojo on 16th and Indiana) a young fella started training in aikido and judo. When he joined the dojo, several of his friends, including his roommate, joined as well. The young fella rapidly became a fanatic for training and was practicing in every class on the schedule. The morning class was run by one instructor, the noon class by another, and the evening by a third, who happened to be the instructor responsible for ranking.
The young fella’s room mate only trained in the evening and so the young fella was doubling or tripling the hours that his roommate was putting in on the mat.
When time came for promotion to brown belt, the roommate was promoted by the evening instructor, and the young fella was passed over. The evening instructor didn’t like that the young fella was training with the noon and morning instructors. He felt he was doing the “serious real training” and the others were misguided.
The young fella was distraught, but continued training like a madman in all three classes nonetheless.
His roommate continued to advance in rank and the young fella continued to remain stuck at green belt. By this time his skills, relative to his roommate were obviously advanced , particularly in randori.
Still, remaining a green belt through the many months angered the young fella and the anger grew like a seed and one day he decided to take action.
The young fella took his green belt and his diploma and gave them back to the dojo. He put on a white belt and disavowed all rank. He trained for the next year wearing only a white belt.
In the mean time the morning, noon and evening instructors all went their separate ways. The noon instructor remained in the dojo and now taught all three times. The young fella continued to wear the white belt and became uchideshi and top student to the noon (now dojo) instructor.
When the dojo instructor wanted to rank the young fella he was met with indifference and no matter what he did or what rank the instructor gave him, the young fella continued to wear a white belt. The young fella had been hurt , he had taken action to get out of the pain but was now stuck and he would not submit again to any ranking.
One day the master of the dojo instructor visited the dojo. Though he was from far away and did not know the young fella, he had a sharp eye and he quickly saw what was going on and in response (pretending that he had forgotten to bring his belt on the trip) he choose to wear a white belt himself for the duration of the visit.
No one had ever seen the master in a white belt before. He had last worn one in the 1940’s.
The young fella looked in the master’s eyes.
Both of them standing there in white belts.
In a blink, the young fella understood that rank he wore didn’t matter anymore. Being stuck as a white belt was no different as being stuck as a green belt. Or being stuck in a black belt, or being stuck in a red and white belt.
The point was to not be stuck at all.
He learned,
If it helps to wear rank, wear it. If it gets in the way, drop it.
After the visit, things returned to normal. The young fella wore his black belt rank, but he was never again stuck by it.