When one receives a menkyo or “license” it is usually accompanied with a title such as “Renshi” or “Shihan” and generally a dan grading is assigned to the recipient at the same time. The differences, however, lie in that a person can move up in a dan ranking but may not necessarily advance in their title or licensure and vice versa. An example of this would be the difference between a first and second dan. Even though there is often a vast difference between the knowledge and capabilities between the two, they both have a menkyo grading of renshi. Secondly, even though a menkyo grading of shihan generally correlates with a fifth dan, it is not necessarily true that a person with a fifth dan is a shihan. It is not infrequent that someone earns a rank of even sixth dan but not a Shihan grading.

 Below is a listing of the two ranking systems along with the obi or sash color, so one can learn the approximate correlation of rank from one system to the other.