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| | Belt colors and ranking tradition |
 | | Ancient martial arts in Japan were eventually classified into eighteen different branches, referred to as the Bugei Ju-Happan. |
 | | Basically, these categories consisted of archery (kyujutsu), artillery (hojutsu), dagger (tantojutsu), halberd (naginatajutsu), hook (mojirijutsu), horsemanship (bajutsu), javelin (sojutsu), knife throwing (shurikenjutsu), needle (ganshinjutsu), restraining (toritejutsu), chain and sickle (kusarigamajutsu), staff (bojutsu), stealth (shinobijutsu) swimming (suijutsu), swordsmanship (kenjutsu), sword-drawing (battojutsu), truncheon (jutte-jutsu), and unarmed self-defense (jujutsu). |
 | | In parallel, many schools of the other arts, such as calligraphy (shodo), painting (sumi-e), or tea ceremony forms (chado), were also created to disseminate their distinct techniques and styles. |
| www.e-budokai.com /articles/belts.htm (2121 words) |
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