The colour of belts denotes the development of the martial arts students. It was not previously existing as you may think, but it was started being used around the start of 20th century. The colour also shows the ranks of the fighters.The comfortable uniform of martial arts was introduced by Kano Jigoro the founder of Judo. He was a teacher by profession in his home country Japan. He started giving his students the belts. The lowest black belt rank was called 'Shodan' literally means beginning degree.
In the beginning the students did not wear the uniform as it looks today but wore a Japanese Kimono with a wide belt called 'obi'. Jigoro introduced the modern uniform and its thinner belt in 1907.
The colours were limited to black for experienced 'Yundasha' and white for less experienced 'Mundasha'. But this spread to other martial arts over time and became today's norm.
In karate, the belts also have deeper meanings assigned to them today: white represents birth and a new seed, yellow the sunlight that works on a new seed and begins its life, orange the power of the sun to help the seed grow, green is seen as the plant sprouting, blue is the sky the plant grows toward, purple represents the sky at dawn, brown the ripening of the plant, red is again seen as the sun and black is the darkness beyond it.
Enjoy reading and be open to the things that world has to offer.
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