Rank has IMO always been fraught with problems.
It isn't Okinawan, and Japan had plenty of problems with it in karate almost from the beginning. However little is discussed about that.
American students got a short course that rank meant something, in and of itself, so their customs developed on that.
Compounded with the same problems found in Japan, compounded and compounded.
I well understand what our originators went through, and love them all the same, simple because if not for their efforts, would we be here, I doubt it.
I went from white to black, then of a friends suggestion ,from a different Indonesian system, started wearing the red, white and black belt outside so it would appear a black belt, not as a sign of rank, but of the responsibility an instructor faces each time they put it on, though others would notice only the black.
Then the time came I was promoted and given a red and white belt to wear. I only wore it for my students on formal occasions. Keeping to my instructor obi for most classes.
Now days I no longer wear an obi, have not done so for the past 2 years. I still practice, just no longer use the obi.
At times i am reminded of something Sherman said to me,
"Too much talking, never enough time training". I always believed that applied to everyone.
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