Faded Belt

[ninj]

Hi all
Here's a question for you all. How on earth do Dan grades get that worn look of their Obi? You know what I mean, the white underneath showing through the black material. The people who have such belts put it down to wear and tear, but I find it so hard to believe that however much you punish your belt, it couldn't look so stressed.

I passed my black belt in 1984 and have never had a belt look in such way, and of course having new belts people tend to think you've only just passed.

I think they must tie them to their back bumpers and drive around for a couple of hours!

To finish I would just like to let you know that at a recent Masters Course my instructor, Arnie Bestwick, was made a Meijin and awarded his 10th Dan Karatedo. A very proud day for me as he is a superb instructor and great friend, thoroughly well deserved.

Cheers everyone.

Take care

Ninj

 

[Aikilove]

They wash them as often as they do their dogi.
I do to. I think that there should be a "clean your gi"-policy in every dojo. You should wash you gi as often as possible to prevent bad b.o. and bacterial and fungie spread.
Nothing worse than training with someone who smell of 3 day old sweat!
That includes your obi. It becomes sweaty to!

/J

 

[Littledragon]

I wash my uniform and iron it and cherish my GI. To keep it clean shows respect to the Martial Arts. As far as the belt, I have never heard of washing a belt. My belt is whithered and you can see the white strings around the belt not because I wash it, simply because I use it so often. The withered belt shows experience and many masters you will see have withered black belts. When a student asks what that indicates or how you got that, the Master would say one word, experience.

 

[TDWoj]

Yes, please do wash your dogi... although I've been told that a hakama should only be washed once per year (haven't found out why, yet).

One guy I train with at seminars and who comes occasionally to my dojo I simply won't work with any more because, frankly, he smells like a goat. Neither his gi nor his hakama have been washed - ever. Bleh.

My head instructor's black belt is crisp and shiny and new looking - I think the belt she doesn't wash, but everything else she does.

 

[Littledragon]

There was once an article in Black Belt magazine titled, "What Is A Real Black Belt."

There was a picture of a 10 year old kid with a new crisp shiny black belt and a picture of Grandmaster Tak Kubota with his old withered one, and the caption said indicating by the withered belt it shows the years and years of experience between each other. Now that is not totally always true, a master who has been doing Martial Arts years and years black belt may not be withered becase they bought a new one, but the majority of every martial art master has at least a black belt that is withered due to the years and years of wearing it and experience in the martial arts.



Notice Tak Kubota's withered Black Belt comapred to the nice shiny clean black belt the kid practicioner is wearing:

 

[latinojazz]

Hi all
Here's a question for you all. How on earth do Dan grades get that worn look of their Obi? You know what I mean, the white underneath showing through the black material. The people who have such belts put it down to wear and tear, but I find it so hard to believe that however much you punish your belt, it couldn't look so stressed.

I passed my black belt in 1984 and have never had a belt look in such way, and of course having new belts people tend to think you've only just passed.

I think they must tie them to their back bumpers and drive around for a couple of hours!

To finish I would just like to let you know that at a recent Masters Course my instructor, Arnie Bestwick, was made a Meijin and awarded his 10th Dan Karatedo. A very proud day for me as he is a superb instructor and great friend, thoroughly well deserved.

Cheers everyone.

Take care

Ninj

I don´t know Ninj, I´m black belt and continue wearing my white Obi, ´cause why?Maybe ´cause I think I´m not good enough for my goals, and also because I Know many really mediocre Aikidokas wearing the black Obi.

For the way you talk, I´m sure you will be a superb instructor and great friend, sure throughly well deserved.

Nice to meet you

 

[ninj]

Thank you...

...latinojazz, very nice of you.

Watched a vey good documentary on SKY A1 channel about a lady and her Argentinian friend going to Japan to train with the top Aikido masters. Very informative programme.

The art is just about the most beautiful art to watch, all teh master includd O'Sensei's Grandson. I would just love to gain my Balck Belt in Aikido.

Kind regards to you.

Ninj

 

[tenshinaikidoka]

I prefer to smell of bad b.o. this way no one would dare to confront you. This is true mastery (of course I am kidding)!!!!! I have never heard of washing your belt, I was always told it would ruin it, hmmm!!!!! But I wash my gi, OFTEN!!!!!!! I sweat like a pig (and am a cop too, go figure) so it needs to be washed as often as I work out!!!!

 

[latinojazz]

I prefer to smell of bad b.o. this way no one would dare to confront you. This is true mastery (of course I am kidding)!!!!! I have never heard of washing your belt, I was always told it would ruin it, hmmm!!!!! But I wash my gi, OFTEN!!!!!!! I sweat like a pig (and am a cop too, go figure) so it needs to be washed as often as I work out!!!!

Are you a cop?Poor criminals.I have many Aikido partners policemans, they think the Aikido is the best way to stop(immobilize)that punches.

I also I sweat like a pig, I have a pair of Kehogi and judogi and I wash them every 2 days....if not

A doubt, I have two hakamas and always I´ve heard by the senseis that never must to be washed, in fact I´ve never did.

Do you have the same custom in the States?

 

[tenshinaikidoka]

My hakama has not been washed (machine washed by me), however I do think they should be dry cleaned and pressed by professionals.

 

[latinojazz]

My hakama has not been washed (machine washed by me), however I do think they should be dry cleaned and pressed by professionals.

Yes, I will look for a dry-cleaner's with proffesionals trained in Aikido to keep the pleats of the hakama right!!!!!

Yes, I must do, one of them start to smell badly

 

[Aikilove]

Why on earth would you not wash you obi?!? Why would that ruin it? I can see that since they are usually quite thick it would take forever to hangdry (and that might be cause for mould growth), but I just wash it and tumbledry it (or hangdry in a hot-air drying cabin) so that it gets really dry. If it wears out I don't keep wearing it just because it looks cool and I look like a "true master". I simply buy a new one! It's just a belt.
A hakama on the other hand, do not get sweaty the same way because it's not laying close to you body like the gi and obi does, with the possible exception for the koshi*ta (the hard rubber board at your lower back).
It would also be destroyed way to quick if washed regularely. Dry cleaning sounds like a good idea. I have only washed mine once in 3 years or so. It doesn't smell and I, like tenshinaikidoka, sweat like a pig when I train. But I guess It's time for a cleaning now. Actually it's time to get a new one. The fabric by the knees are getting torn to pieces.

The belt is just a belt. I don't judge the skill of anyone by the color (or discoloration!) of their belt. I simply look at their ukemi and how they perform techniques on me and others.

/J

 

[latinojazz]

The belt is just a belt. I don't judge the skill of anyone by the color (or discoloration!) of their belt. I simply look at their ukemi and how they perform techniques on me and others.
/J

Right, quite right, your bloody well right.....(Supertramp song)

Yes, dry cleaning sounds like a good idea. I bought my usually hakama(a cheaper one)ten years ago and I´ve never washed it.The past month bought a great one in tozando.com from Japan but I´m not still used yet.
I will take to dry cleaning my loved old one and will wear for the first time the new.

 

[Purplelotus1]

clean up folks!

 

[Margo1215]

You are not suppose to wash your Belt.

 

[Aikilove]

Margo1215, Why not? Why is it not alowed?
Everyone: Why would washing your belt ruin it or be bad etc? Please explain it to me. It's just another piece of cloth that keeps you pants and dogi tucked and one that also get soaked in sweat.

Do you think it has anything to do with tradition? The tradition of wearing a belt (like they look today) wasn't introduced until modern times (after year 1900) by Kano and the guys.

Before you used your obi to keep your clothes together (and the sword tucked if you were alowed to wear one). And this obi was a wide one, like you see kenjutsu and iaido people wear today.

here is an example of a traditional obi worn by men http://www.kyotokimono.com/WhatsForSale/ObiSaleImages/0905obi5detail.jpg

And believe me they washed it just like anything else that got sweaty. If there is anything that japanese people didn't like (I don't know about today) it was bad odor.

I just don't see why one shouldn't wash it. Is there something holy about your belt, that prevent it from being cleaned?

/J

 

[Purplelotus1]

I think this started all because of people's bad laundry habits LOL you know how you put a color in with the whites LOL maybe the teachers got tired of seeing multi colored gi's lol. a yellow one here , a pink one there, all the colors of the rainbow lol

 

[TDWoj]

You are not suppose to wash your Belt.

Why not? Ever tried to keep a brand new belt tied for a whole class?

I wash my belt when I wash my gi, once per week. (I wear a t-shirt under my gi, so it's only the t-shirt that gets really sweaty, except for around the neck of the gi).

I've been washing my belt since I got my gi in January. It's none the worse for it, and, in fact, it's easier to tie because it's not as stiff.

When I get my next gi, hopefully in a couple of weeks, the first place it's going is into the wash. With the belt.

 

[Littledragon]

Why not? Ever tried to keep a brand new belt tied for a whole class?

I wash my belt when I wash my gi, once per week. (I wear a t-shirt under my gi, so it's only the t-shirt that gets really sweaty, except for around the neck of the gi).

I've been washing my belt since I got my gi in January. It's none the worse for it, and, in fact, it's easier to tie because it's not as stiff.

When I get my next gi, hopefully in a couple of weeks, the first place it's going is into the wash. With the belt.

Hey TD, that is a good idea on washing your belt. Can I please ask you a question. How do you wash a cotton black belt? Should it be in cold water?

 

[Aikilove]

Littledragon. It's cotton. You can boil it without problem! Just let your mom (or whoever does the washing) wash it with similar colour clothes that can go in resonable high temp.

/J

 

[Littledragon]

Littledragon. It's cotton. You can boil it without problem! Just let your mom (or whoever does the washing) wash it with similar colour clothes that can go in resonable high temp.

/J

So I can wash it with cold water correct? The color of the belt wont change color or anything I hope.

 

[TDWoj]

I wash it in cold water, because it IS cotton and it WILL shrink (at least, it will in the first wash). I do use the dryer, but on permanent press with cool-down.

Just don't use detergent that's got bleach in it, because it'll cause fading after a while (for coloured belts. For white belts, it doesn't matter.).

 

[Littledragon]

I wash it in cold water, because it IS cotton and it WILL shrink (at least, it will in the first wash). I do use the dryer, but on permanent press with cool-down.

Just don't use detergent that's got bleach in it, because it'll cause fading after a while (for coloured belts. For white belts, it doesn't matter.).

Ok, thanks alot TD.