Understanding The Meaning Of The Karate Uniform

By Author: Andrew Bui
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Anyone who has seen a student of karate (also known as a karateka) during their training sessions or at a martial arts event has possibly had a few questions about the unique karate uniform that he or she was wearing and why it looks the way it does. Truthfully, there are more types of attire attached to this sport than most people know and many of these ensembles have special meaning and symbolism, sometimes dating back to the very beginning of the sport.

For starters, these unique looking outfits were initially worn during training sessions in Japan many long years ago, where they are referred to using their traditional Japanese name, karategi. The karategi is formed of three unique pieces that should be pretty easily recognized, the loose fitting pants, the jacket that is doubled over and tied in the front, and the specially colored belt that is actually designed for a lot more than simply holding the jacket together.

The karate belts that are worn with the karategi are known as obis and are shaded for the specific purpose of being able to identify the rank and skill level of each participating member ...
... of a dojo or martial arts school, so that the instructor and fellow students will be able to keep up with each student's progression in their training. The colors generally go from the lightest colors, like white or yellow, all the way to black, with special stripes to mark ranks between colors.

There is little question as to why these outfits are so loose fitting, the wideness of the pants and looseness of the jacket provide the participant the ability to move freely without restriction from their attire, an important component in the practice of martial arts. When finishing off a roundhouse kick or a flip, tight clothes would be incredibly restrictive and possibly even break or wear down quickly, for this reason a high quality, lose fitting karategi is preferred.

Another reason that the jacket of the karategi and the obi are formed the way that they are is so that they can be removed effortlessly when a student would like to fight with more freedom and less risk of overheating. These are just some of the reasons for the unique look of the karate uniform, but each characteristic of this ensemble was implemented with a particular purpose and function in mind.
If you are seeking for more information about this article then just check on Karate Uniform or you might want to check also on Karate Equipment.