Jan de Jong's Shodan Grading

I recently had reason to study the Jan de Jong grading system and it proved quite enlightening.

Sensei Greg Palmer (my mentor) often said that in most Japanese martial arts systems, shodan was where you were considered to be a student but in JDJ's system, shoden was a 'master' grading. Greg was of course correct, however, my research now supports and adds substance to that contention.

The traditional 'rank' system in the Japanese martial arts is the menkyo kaiden system. Menkyo kaiden means teaching license and the licenses were awarded at the discretion of the soke of the system.

Jigoro Kano introduced the dan ranking system in 1883 when he awarded dan grades to two of his senior students. There were no formal examinations and they were awarded at  Kano's discretion. While the new dan ranking system retained the discretionary nature of the menkyo kaiden system, it did not signify mastery as the latter system did.

Kano was a professional educator and based on his professional experience he later introduced formal requirements and examinations into his Kodokan Judo grading system. It is not known when Kano introduced the formalised requirements and examinations for gradings in Kodokan Judo.

JDJ was graded sandan by his instructor, S. Saito 8th dan, in the 1930s. Folk lore has it that this grading was the final 'technical grading' in the system, however, there were no formal requirements nor examinations. The awarding was at the discretion of Saito. It was a Kano dan-menkyo kaiden system.

The first grading system for JDJ is seen in his seven kyu grades being taught in 1950. Where he was introduced to a formal examination system for his grades is unknown. It could have been while training with judoka in Holland during WWII. It could have been through the study of martial arts books that he commenced collecting during the same period. Either way, the JDJ grading system consisted of seven kyu gradings in 1950.

In 1978, JDJ introduced the mon system at the front end of his system and significantly modified ikkyu (blac & white). This is what JDJ had to say about that modification to his grading system when he answered Mike Clarke's question whether it was a good idea to change the system to suit students:


Yes, I know what you're saying, but you know you can learn all the time. And if the results are better one way than the other, why carry on in a way that gives poorer results? I'll give you an example. In 1978 a Major Greg Mawkes MBE asked me if I would go and teach the army self-defence. I said okay and soon afterwards found myself teaching members of the SAS and the Commandos. Shortly after I had started to do this the Major and I had a discussion about things. He told me that he thought the method of fighting was really good and he was pleased with that. But he said the men were having some difficulty understanding it all. I said this was the usual way of things and that my students were the same. He then explained the army did not have unlimited time to spend on this and that what he needed was quick results.

So it was at that point I had to think things through and see what I cold come up with. I looked at the usual way the army taught things and decided I would alter the way I was teaching and come more in line with the army way of doing things. Well, do you know, the people started to pick things up much faster than before, and they could do the techniques much better than before! So I had a talk with my Instructors and said I thought that we should change things so that we were teaching everyone like this. And at that time we changed the way we taught the students. ... And since then things have been much better.

In 1978, JDJ had a grading system to 1st kyu with no yudansha (black belts) in his school other than himself. His instructors were graded ikkyu with only JDJ being yudansha. That would be unthinkable in this day and age, however, he built a school of over 1000 students with no person/instructor being yudansha other than himself.

JDJ visited Europe in the late 70s and was invited to return by the WJJF. During that visit he saw that all of the schools had yudansha teaching students. JDJ did not. (a) He realised that his instructors would not be respected if they were not yudansha, and (b) he saw that his instructors were the equal of or better than the European higher graded instructors. So JDJ set about developing a shodan grading so that he could (a) appropriately recognise the expertise of his instructors, and (b) so that he could be accompanied by yudansha when he returned to Europe to teach. The first shodans were awarded in 1981 and JDJ's first European teaching tour was conducted in 1982 where he was accompanied by a number of his newly awarded yudansha.

What has to be understood is that JDJ did not develop his shodan as part of a dan grading system.  There was no thought of developing a dan grading system. The shodan grade was developed as a standalone grading. It was the top of the mountain. It was a teachers grade; a masters grade.

The Japanese marital arts grading system has shodan signifying a mastery of the basics of the system. Sandan (3rd dan) or godan (5th dan) is where the attainment of teacher or mastery was signified. JDJ's shodan was the equivalent of sandan or godan in most (all) other Japanese martial arts systems.

This is but the commencement of an understanding of the JDJ grading system. A study of the system will conclude that it was developed piecemeal by someone who had little or no experience or knowledge of the Japanese grading system approach. Consequently, the resultant grading system is disjointed, laborious, inefficient, and not 'benchmarked' with the Japanese martial arts grading system approach. For all of that, it is a remarkable achievement.

JDJ developed his grading system with no experience of a grading system with formal examinations and requirements. No knowledge of the Japanese grading system approach. He developed it while in occupied Holland during WWII, in Indonesia post WWII, and in Perth, Western Australia, where there were no examples to follow even if other schools would be willing to share their grading system with him. There was no internet to obtain precedents. Imagine if you had to develop a grading system under those circumstances.

What are the implications of this understanding of JDJ's shodan? One is that it could be argued that all of the former instructors who graded ikkyu and all students who did likewise are the equivalent rank of at at least shodan in other schools. Those graded shodan the equivalent of at least sandan in other schools.

Another implication is that if the JDJ dan grading system was to be benchmarked with other Japanese martial arts grading systems, that the formal gradings currently in ikkyu and shodan should be spread over three-five dan grades. There is only one offshoot of the original JDJ school that is currently doing just that so that the fall in line with current practice. Some of the other offshoots are compounding the problems inherent in the dan grading system by adding more and more grades.