White belt

Kyū
Coloured belts are worn by kyū ranked practitioners in many martial arts, including judo, karate, Kuk Sool Won and taekwondo.
Japanese name
Kanji	級
Hiragana	きゅう
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn kyū

Kyū (^?)[kjuː] is a Japanese term used in modern martial arts as well as in tea ceremony, flower arranging, go, shogi, academic tests and other similar activities to designate various grades, levels or degrees of proficiency or experience. In China, kyū (級) is called "ji", and it is used for academic tests. In Korea, the term geup (급) is used (also transliterated as gup or kup). In Vietnamese martial arts, it is known as cấp (khớp).

In 1883, Kanō Jigorō, the founder of Judo, established the system of Dan ranking to measure the Judo practitioners' ability. This system was derived from the Dan ranking system of Go, the ancient board game. Some organizations of academic tests started using the Kyū ranking system to measure candidates' ability.

Similarly, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department started a ranking system using Kyū to measure the police officers' ability in Kendo. Grades were from 8th to 1st.

In the 1890s, the Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society introduced the dan and kyū ranking system to other martial arts in Japan.