{"id":18736,"date":"2025-05-13T08:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/?p=18736"},"modified":"2025-05-14T08:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T08:37:58","slug":"origins-of-the-dan-and-kyu-grades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/?p=18736","title":{"rendered":"Origins of the dan and kyu grades"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Timeline<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Late 1600s<\/strong> &#8211; Honinbo Dosaku created the Dan ranking for Go.<sup>1<\/sup><\/li>\n<li><strong>1883<\/strong> &#8211; Kano Jigoro integrated the Dan ranking into his founded Judo.<sup>2<\/sup><\/li>\n<li><strong>1883<\/strong> &#8211; The Hoensha school created\/switched to a Kyu only system for Go.<sup>3<\/sup><\/li>\n<li><strong>1886<\/strong> &#8211; The Dan-ranked practitioners in Kano&#8217;s judo, wearing black belts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1893<\/strong> &#8211; The Hoensha school switched to the combined Kyu and Dan system.<sup>3<\/sup><\/li>\n<li><strong>Early 1900s<\/strong> &#8211; Kano Jigoro integrated Kyu grades into Judo without colored belts.<sup>4<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h2>Explanations<\/h2>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> Most likely based on the 9 Pin Zhi ranking system from China.<br \/>\n<sup>2<\/sup> He awarded the first Dan ranks to two of his senior students.<br \/>\n<sup>3<\/sup> The translation happens as shown in the table below.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<th>Dan system (Before 1883)<\/th>\n<td>9d<\/td>\n<td>8d<\/td>\n<td>7d<\/td>\n<td>6d<\/td>\n<td>5d<\/td>\n<td>4d<\/td>\n<td>3d<\/td>\n<td>2d<\/td>\n<td>1d<\/td>\n<td>&#8211;<\/td>\n<td>&#8211;<\/td>\n<td>&#8211;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Kyu system (1883 &#8211; 1893)<\/th>\n<td>1k<\/td>\n<td>2k<\/td>\n<td>3k<\/td>\n<td>4k<\/td>\n<td>5k<\/td>\n<td>6k<\/td>\n<td>7k<\/td>\n<td>8k<\/td>\n<td>9k<\/td>\n<td>10k<\/td>\n<td>11k<\/td>\n<td>12k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Dan\/Kyu system (After 1893)<\/th>\n<td>9d<\/td>\n<td>8d<\/td>\n<td>7d<\/td>\n<td>6d<\/td>\n<td>5d<\/td>\n<td>4d<\/td>\n<td>3d<\/td>\n<td>2d<\/td>\n<td>1d<\/td>\n<td>1k<\/td>\n<td>2k<\/td>\n<td>3k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><sup>4<\/sup> Colored Kyu belts are originated later outside of Japan.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>Myths<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The kyu and dan ranking system in Go has roots in 17th-century Japan. It was developed by Honinbo Dosaku [&#8230;]&#8221; (Origin: <a href=\"https:\/\/gomagic.org\/go-ranks-ratings-kyu-dan-and-elo-rating\/\">gomagic.org<\/a>, 2025-05-14)<br \/><strong>Wrong<\/strong>: Honinbo Dosaku only developed the Dan grades, most likely based on the 9 Pin Zhi ranking system.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Seit Kan\u014d Jigor\u014d 1895 die Ky\u016b-Grade \u2013 in Anlehnung an das deutsche Schulsystem des 19. Jahrhunderts \u2013 in die Kampfkunst Judo einbrachte [&#8230;]&#8221; (Origin: <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ky%C5%AB\">de.wikipedia.org<\/a>, 2025-05-14)<br \/><strong>Most likely wrong<\/strong>: Kano was more likely inspired by the Kyu system already implemented by Hoensha. Even though he had contact with Erwin B\u00e4lz.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forums.online-go.com\/t\/the-history-and-evolution-of-kyu-rank-in-go-game\/34423\">The history and evolution of kyu rank in Go game<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Timeline Late 1600s &#8211; Honinbo Dosaku created the Dan ranking for Go.1 1883 &#8211; Kano Jigoro integrated the Dan ranking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18736"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18736"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18766,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18736\/revisions\/18766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.max-sperling.bplaced.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}