If you are a member of the Romsey club, you may have noticed different Karategi uniforms when you attended Kyushindo seminars in Oxford, London or Surrey, or when Romsey had visiting instructors from those areas.
Within the KIJA and KIA, the Karategi rules were:
Up to Black Belt: All White Karategi is mandatory.
Black belt to 3rd Dan: White top and black trousers are allowed.
4th Dan and above: All Black Karategi allowed.
(It might be 3rd Dan for all Black now?)
I believe these rules still apply in those areas.
The Southampton area allowed all Black Karategi from the Black Belt onwards, and this rule was inherited by the Romsey club.
The Luton area had similar Karategi rules to the KIJA/KIA, and the pictures I have seen of the Australian clubs (Northampton derived) suggest they have black Karategi options, though it appears that all Kyu grades wear a black top with white trousers. The Bristol area and the derived Italian clubs do not seem to have any black options for their Karategi.
Why Black Karategi in Kyushindo Karate for KIJA/KIA? I have heard two theories.
1. To differentiate from mainstream karate.
2. This is the format used in some Chinese martial arts, particularly Hsing-I.
In the late 1980s, a KIJA/KIA rule only allowed progression to 2nd Dan and above if individuals ran their own clubs. I’m not sure when this rule stopped applying.
I wasn’t interested in starting a club after gaining my 1st Dan; I studied for a degree from 1988 to 1992. My Karate peer, Sean McCrossen, started his club to progress, and he was also asked to diversify the Kyushindo clubs across Surrey, which led to the initial idea of starting the club.
In Kyushindo Karate, there is a Black Belt grade. In most Japanese Karate organisations, the grading from brown to black belt results in a 1st Dan rank.
The other noticeable difference in the KIJA/KIA from Romsey is that there are no junior or cadet black belt grades. I believe this is still the case in other areas with a minimum age of 18 for a black belt, and it was a source of contention with Romsey when Kyushindo seminars were attended in the early 2000s with some cadets.
At Banstead in the 1980s, the minimum age for training was 13, but once there were a few home-grown black belts, they started taking the 13-18 year-olds for the first hour of the 2-hour Sunday session in a separate hall.
It took a while for me to adapt to a children’s syllabus (and keep to it) when I first joined Romsey.
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