Judo federations have promoted another eleven who are not recognized (at that level of rank) by the Kodokan. On July 28, 2011, the promotion board of USA Judo awarded Keiko Fukuda the rank of 10th "dan", who was the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level, albeit not a Kodokan-recognized rank. Although "dan" ranks tend to be consistent between national organizations there is more variation in the "kyū" grades, with some countries having more "kyū" grades. Although initially "kyū" grade belt colours were uniformly white, today a variety of colours are used. The first black belts to denote a
Judo in Canada judo are that judoka with visual impairments take hold of their opponent before the start of the match, and the mat has different textures to indicate zones and the competition area. Judo for the visually impaired has a long history in Canada and, according to a newspaper article published in 1952, Ottawa was the home of the only judo club for the blind in the world at the time. In most circumstances, however, visually impaired and sighted judoka belong to the same clubs and practice together. Canada was first represented in international competition by brothers Pier Morten and Eddie Morten