Karate belts and stripes can be purchased from the club just after gradings (for more about gradings see belts and testing)

To commemorate passing the examination for black belt many students have their names embroidered at one end and the style of karate or association at the other end.

The photo (left) shows some black belts that have been embroidered with Japanese characters (Kanji).

Left: Kanazawa Ryu

Right Shotokan Karate-Do Jinseikai

The belts have been arranged in the photograph to show how the Kanji characters can be embroidered on both sides of one end of the belt.

To enable this to be done without stitches being seen on the reverse side of the belt, the characters are first embroidered on a sheet of black cotton or silk which is then wrapped and finally stitched around the belt.

The belts above were awarded to two of our students who were the first to reach 2nd Dan in the club's history since it was founded in 1987.