During the early days of judo in 1880s there were only two belt colors, white and black. Indeed, the more judokas did judo with the white belt, the more the belt turned black.

The belt colors were invented in England in the mid-1920s. In order of increased skills, the belts are white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and the famous black. There are also additional grades to evaluate and reward junior judokas (white-yellow, yellow-orange, orange-green, green-blue, blue-brown).

For a having a belt, the student must have attained the knowledge to assess the technical level, its effectiveness in combat, his level of seniority and his moral qualities. The belt colors are white to brown call kyu: from 11th kyu to 1st kyu. Kyu above, the levels are named dan (degree): 1st dan to 5th dan, the belt is black, the 6th, 7th and 8th dan are represented by a belt broadband alternating red and white, the 9th and 10th dan by a red belt. After the red belt, there is a belt that has been achieved only by Jigoro Kano (posthumously), the wide white belt that represents the 11th and 12th.