Re: Black Belts registered in Japan
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:03 pm
Because Karate is Japanese, a menjo in the Japanese language, actually registered in some kind of book in the desk of some Japanese organization that has been around a while, and that people have heard of, is likely the "gold standard" for karate diplomas. In the case of wadoryu a diploma signed by Mr. Ohtsuka would be the best of the best, but that went away in 1981 and very few of us were graded beyond sandan in those days. To me it is a combination of the organization, grading panel, primary instructor and the quality of the guy's students; show me really good students and I don't care much about the rest. I must say that I prefer physical certifications to be written only in Japanese; it looks better to me.