Rank in Judo English language edition (1955) of "Illustrated Kodokan Judo", edited by the Kōdōkan, says: This statement was later clarified, however. Essentially, the dan-rank system was capped at 10 after the death of Kanō. In that respect, in the November 1963 issue of "Jūdō", the Kōdōkan's official magazine, the Kōdōkan responding to the question "Do the 11th and 12th Dan really exist?" clarifies that the hierarchy now stops at 10 and that the Kōdōkan does not envisage any nominations to these grades. There have only been fifteen 10th dan promotions awarded by the Kōdōkan in the history of Judo. Although "dan" ranks
Judo particularly from more powerful throws that uke lacks the skill to breakfall from. For these reasons, throws are normally taught in order of difficulty for both tori and uke. This is exemplified in the "Gokyo" , a traditional grouping of throws arranged in order of difficulty of ukemi. Those grouped in are relatively simple to breakfall from whereas those grouped in are difficult to breakfall from. A practitioner of judo is known as a . The modern meaning of "judoka" in English is a judo practitioner of any level of expertise, but traditionally those below the rank of 4th "dan"