The karate uniform is called dogi（胴着）, and the belt is called obi（帯）. The belts vary in color according to rank.

The beginner starts with a white belt, and is then promoted to a brown belt, and then a black belt. However, karate has many schools and the color of belts differs in each school, for example, there are yellow, blue, purple, green, and orange belts.


But why are there so many colors? It is mainly for children, to encourage them to move up to the next level.

Ranking is broadly classified into two stages: kyu（級） and dan（段）. Each stage separated into different levels. The stages represent the degree of technique acquisition (waza). The kyu stage involves ridding oneself of bad qualities one by one. There are 10 levels. When people reach 1Kyu the ranking changes to Dan. This is when true karate training begins.