Out of Thin Air: The Search for Hasaka Yutashi

Regret is a hard thing to live with in life. We all have times we look back and see into our past and think about the things we should have done, could have done, or would have done. How different would life have been in those moments you made a choice? Would it be what it is today? That’s the key word here: choice. We all have that God-given free will to exert over our lives power to make a choice. And how we move through life is honestly a series of choices that intersect across the boundaries and lives of others. I think in many cases with these frauds it will be the regret that they lied as they so often did, using claims to long-deceased people or making it all up as they went along until finally in the end they look back and realize that lies do catch up and one will reap what they sow. Most likely not but a guy can dream, right?

It is with that thought in mind that I look now at what is the most important and pivotal claim of Bret Gordon, that of him being allegedly the headmaster of American Yoshinkan Aikijujutsu. Gordon claims without hesitation to be the living successor to his teacher, Steven Hatfield and through him a man named Hasaka Yutashi. Most of the people who have heard his story over the last couple of years all agree it sounds made up, ringing similar to the claims of Insei Saija or Tiger Tanaka. But if you were to listen to Gordon he has scrolls, a red belt and pictures, evidence he can show anyone who asks or visits. In other words he has undeniable proof…proof he has refused to let anyone outside of his echo chamber see. No experts, no one who can verify it’s authenticity in regards to the actual history of where he claims it came from. Due to this he has attracted a lot of detractors. Why would he not want to shut down any one who says they aren’t legitimate especially if they can prove it?

Now, now dear readers. Gordon is a living historian. He is above reproach. His research impeccable. Why even when caught in the middle of a lie he deftly hands out the new narrative within hours on one of his many websites. Well, he used to anyway, that was because his websites started getting taken down faster than Ron Collins in a prison shower. 

The story of Ron Collins proves that there is really is someone for everyone.

If anything has been shown over the last few years is that the vast majority of Gordon’s claims and lineages specifically those through which he connects to using William Sirbaugh are anything but true. And his aikijujutsu claims related to the legend and myth of Hasaka Yutashi are also suspect due to the fact it involves Sirbaugh. I believe personally he has again misrepresented himself as well as the story of his system’s founder. Not surprisingly the only evidence he has publicly presented aside from a picture of his own teacher as a child with a random man who’s face is obscured, is a picture which isn’t what he claims it to be….and I have the evidence to back that statement.

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s time to tell the story of Hasaka Yutashi and give a reason Gordon felt a need to create him from thin air. We will not view him as a person…but as the phantom Gordon has attempted to pass him off as. Let us see the steps that lead towards how and why he created such an apparition and at the end of the day Gordon’s own words and “proof” will once again be what brings him more scrutiny.

"From Out of Thin Air"

 The Search for Hasaka Yutashi

By Gerald J. Greysmith

The Claims Today

According to Gordon’s own “American Yoshinkan Aikijujutsu” website he has a detailed history of Daito Ryu and allegedly how his style links to them. He claims the following:

“Hasaka Yutashi grew up in the martial arts, first learning Jujutsu from his father. Over time, he began development of what would later become American Yoshinkan Aiki Jujutsu (named in 1999), although he still remained an active student of the arts. He would go on to study Daito Ryu with Horikawa Kodo during the 1960s and '70s, as well as Yoshinkan Aikido briefly with Shioda Gozo. Shioda was a fellow student of Horikawa around 1977-78 after Horikawa visited his Tokyo dojo, and so Hasaka sensei had the opportunity to share information with him. However, although brief, Shioda would influence Hasaka sensei so greatly that his art became the inspiration for our naming.”

Very inspiring stuff worthy of a slow clap. It is now in 2023 that Gordon has attached himself to the story of this man so strongly that I believe anyone who states otherwise would be speaking heresy in his eyes. I start here because it is where he is making his most recent and very archived claim pictures and all. Funny enough, that archived link looks a little different from his current one. 

Once more let us all pay very close attention to a particular picture...one that isn't a part of the earlier drafts of the website for American Yoshinkan Aikijujutsu.

Gordon has offered little if anything over the years to validate this story except the pictures on his website and some copies of some scrolls he claims to have. He has stated many times he doesn’t owe the world an explanation of the history of his system. Some of his or his teacher’s associates have claimed to have met Yutashi, but no physical evidence exists aside from withering statements made by his sensei’s friend James Parrish on the blog of one of Lordus Sapiens. Parrish claims to have met Hasaka Yutashi years ago in Columbus. Gordon will not present evidence because he knows too many people who could discredit him would.  

Thinking on this the last couple of years I made a decision. If Gordon wasn’t going to be the scholar he claims to be about this and prove his claims I would simply go find out for myself. And I knew right where to begin…you see, the previous Gerald Greysmith left me the way to go long, long ago before he died.

The Daito Ryu Kodokai and the Path It Took Me On

In 2020 my predecessor reached out to two sources: Daito Ryu Kodokai and the Hombu for Yoshinkan Aikido. These two organizations were claimed by Gordon to be a part of this story as he states his art has a link to them either through legacy, lineage, or direct inspiration.

The Yoshinkan Hombu got back to him quite fast, literally within a day or two. When he contacted them he simply asked about William Sirbaugh and Hasaka Yutashi. They responded (while laughing) that the name wasn’t even Japanese and no, there were no records of either. Gordon has always maintained that his missing founder was “deeply impacted” by meeting Shioda Gozo, the founder of Yoshinkan Aikido. As one Daito Ryu practitioner who encountered Gordon personally said to me via email, “Gozo met Horikawa on one occasion it seems and they were never training partners, and Gozo was never his student. This is historical fact.”

 

My, my that picture keeps popping up...

It took some time for Daito Ryu Kodokai to answer back. We were in a pandemic, times were tough all over. But when they did the response was the same as the Yoshinkan Hombu. I ended up on a call with one of their members and they told me that for several years they had gotten the occasional call or message from people who had met Gordon. And wouldn’t you know it? They were always asking about his mythical system and fabled founder….and the Kodokai had to be the ones to tell people he was lying. In an email exchange between myself and one such contact there you can clearly see that they responded with a resounding negative to the membership or training of Sirbaugh or Yutashi.

 

Long story short? Daito Ryu Kodokai has no records of Bret Gordon, William Sirbaugh or Hasaka Yutashi...I assume by default this would include Steven Hatfield as well since he allegedly trained with these men....

Why would I even ask about William Sirbaugh and his connection to Daito Ryu at this stage in the game? Well it turns out at one point Gordon had also been claiming Sirbaugh was trained quite diligently in the system of Hankido by it’s founder, Myung Jae-nam. And screencaps I obtained from them show Gordon making a claim Sirbaugh was trained in Daito Ryu itself….not with in American Yoshinkan Aikijujutsu with Hasaka Yutashi. Believe me when they found out that he had been claiming a link to them through an unknown person they were only too happy to help me debunk his claims of any connection to Hankido, and directly give me evidence of another claim that without surprising anyone can’t be verified either.

Apparently correct when he wrote it, Gordon claimed to the Hankido folks some years ago that Sirbaugh was training in Daito Ryu in the 1990's.

And so now we have Gordon claiming William Sirbaugh was trained in Daito Ryu, Aikido, Hankido…. I thought according to the official biography Sirbaugh was trained by Yutashi in the aiki arts? I could have sworn he was an accomplished martial artist in many styles…this is the official narrative of Bret Gordon and his websites.

A claim of martial prowess that exists on his website at this very moment.

It seems across all of Gordon’s pages he was intentionally making it difficult to put his statements together coherently to track any his claims. Whether this was by design or he just forgot about what he was saying as years went by isn’t important anymore, but they are his words and claims regardless. Many times as you reread his archived pages long gone you can see that at the very least he was building to massive lineages and it appeared he had his eyes on an aikijujutsu heritage of some sort. But that lineage itself gets convoluted, claims every step of the way change and quite frequently.

For example in 2018 his biography on his Trio Martial Arts page states the following:

“Beginning his martial arts journey at the age of 4, Kaiso Bret Gordon has studied and attained Dan ranking in numerous martial arts disciplines (including Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu, Goju-Ryu Karatedo, Kempo Jujutsu, Taekwondo among others.)”

From 2018, here we see Gordon claiming to be a dan rank in Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. 

However in one of his more self-serving posts from his gone-but-not-forgotten USAMA blog, an article titled “Bret Gordon is Not….” dated October 25th, 2022, he states the following:

⁸

"I have never claimed any rank in Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu." - Bret Gordon

In regards to statements that didn't age well....

Once again his own words have betrayed him and his claims. His words. Yet it’s me who gets yelled at for simply verifying them. But things as they are and his claims of Yutashi being an alias this master of masters took on I wanted to be sure I was right in my belief he never existed so I had to verify it completely. I would need professional help, assistance from those in the know.

And that led me to the most important piece of the puzzle Gordon had placed on his website to prove the alleged existence of this seemingly non-existent man. The picture below is from the 25th Anniversary of the Kodokai, and Gordon states that Hasaka Yutashi is in this picture.

There it is again....

Surprisingly I would find just as he had done with the multiple other photos in the past, Gordon was using this one the same way, and it turns out it has nothing to do with Hasaka Yutashi at all. Now I had something concrete to present to Daito Ryu practitioners who needed to see the level of his claims and the lengths he had gone to in order to misconstrue his own background about where this all came from.

It seems Gordon’ crown jewel in his collection is more of a fake diamond of sorts. And I was about to get the answers I needed from people who coincidentally had interacted with him years before I ever knew Gordon’s name.

Truth, Justice, and Bret Gordon’s Way

“I met Bret Gordon through my Orlando, Florida students in 2014,” the man said to me on a call.

The gentleman in question is Howard Popkin, a Daito Ryu practitioner who has encountered Bret Gordon before. He first met Gordon in 2014 when he attended two of their seminars and seemed to want to get as much information about Aikijujutsu as he possibly could.

“He wasn’t without some skill, Gerald, but he was a bold-faced liar. He was creating this from the ground up, I see that now.”

It was as we spoke Mr. Popkin began to read over some of Gordon’s many recent claims that included his black belt in Judo, his black belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, his recently debunked claims of Hankido through Sirbaugh, and he looked over Gordon’s defense of Patrick Justice. Mr. Popkin seemed very upset about this.

“He’s lost his mind, this kid,” Mr. Popkin said to me. “He’s gone off the deep end and is appearing to have black belts beyond anything he should have. The sheer number and gradings are not fitting with his years just like you said. He also has our pictures on his site…he doesn’t have any right to these photos.”

I replied, “Gordon claimed in 2018 to have a black belt in Daito Ryu, and states a William Sirbaugh was involved in Daito Ryu. At least that’s the message he sent to the Hankido people.”

I shared these messages with him as well as screencaps of Gordon’s claims that included the statements he made to the Hankido Federation representatives I had spoken to.

“Gerald there is no one by the name of William Sirbaugh that ever trained in Daito Ryu, and if there was I would have known him.”

Gordon shamelessly shows one of these pictures off on his American Yoshinkan Page as “proof” of Hasaka Yutashi. It is this picture I want the reader to know tracks back to only one other location and, true to form, it predates Gordon’s use of it. In a similar fashion to how he used the 1959 picture of Lawrence Sieberlich on his AJA site in an attempt to pass it off as Sirbaugh in 1972 he is using this one from the Kodokai in much the same fashion.

The page with the original location of the picture shows no mention of Hasaka Yutashi, and also appears that Gordon has altered it's color scheme. Similar as he did with the Moodukkwan photo, he has made use of this picture for his own means. 

“Mr. Popkin, I need your help,” I said. “This picture on his webpage he has, is it possible for you to tell me who is in it? Gordon claims his system’s founder, Yutashi, is in that picture. I have a partial listing of the names and I know that several were well-to-do and politically connected. But I don’t believe a single one of them left Daito Ryu, moved to California, founded a system of their own and passed it to William Sirbaugh, Steven Hatfield or Bret Gordon.”

Without hesitation he said, “Gerald I can say with absolute certainty that the folks in this picture can be accounted for and no, there is no one in it who changed their name to ‘Hasaka Yutashi.’”

“Gerald he came to us back in 2014 and attempted to apply for membership with our group. We denied it. He was a liar then, we could see it. Sadly he seems to have not changed a bit. I can say without question Bret Gordon fabricated the entire lineage of his system, his founder, he took what little he had learned and made it appear legitimate and created this system. He’s been told to take these photos down as they belong to Daito Ryu itself…not him. He knows he’s lying and now almost a decade later it seems he won’t ever stop. I told Bret to his face he was a lying piece of shit…he had some skill, no lie. But he made his bed, and he has to lie in it. And me? I don’t lie in a bed full of shit.”

Real authorities on the subject agree: Hasaka Yutashi is not in that photo and no one to this day can place such a person….nor can they find evidence of Sirbaugh. This is a statement from Mr. Howard Popkin stating who came to America, and it is now proven no one by the name of Yutashi or any other variation is in that photo.

In 2014 Gordon tried to apply to the Ginjukai and was denied membership. This was before he was calling himself a soke....at least in aikijujutsu.

The Truth about Hasaka Yutashi

Being denied entry into the Ginjukai must have been quite a blow to Gordon’s ego and he probably knew if they denied him then so, too, would the Daito Ryu Kodokai. I also believe he never thought anyone would go to the lengths I did to speak to those who he may have encountered or communicated with in the Daito Ryu community. While small it appears they are very communicative to one another. Many of those more senior in the art also know the history and can verify much of what is true, or in Gordon’s case, not true about it.

On the flip side it appears most of those who encountered Gordon never imagined that he would go to the lengths he has to build all of these lies and lineages he has claimed up to this point. Using William Sirbaugh was something I believe he did strategically. The man was allegedly stationed in Korea while in the military so that made it able to appear likely he could have trained in Moodukkwan, Jidokwan, and Hankido, yet those stories about his life are now shown to not be true at all. If they were Gordon would not be using photographs and other evidence he collected from legitimate sources and attempted to pass them off as his. Seeing as Sirbaugh is deceased he isn’t here to discredit the claims, either. I guess it was a good thing I spoke to some family members in the past who stated to their knowledge he never trained in the martial arts.

My summation is if the claims linking Sirbaugh to other arts are not true then what are the odds he ever trained with this mysterious person who is now known to NOT be in that picture? How likely are those odds in Gordon’s favor as it pertains to his claims, especially given his past behaviors? I think that Hasaka Yutashi was someone he created to house his stories of aikijujutsu mastery with, trace to him and his teacher and be more than just what he would consider to be a simple practitioner of Daito Ryu. It’s all about the titles to Gordon. As Hopkin and a few others have stated, “Gordon was not without some measure of skill,” but in the same statement say, “but he was also a liar and now proven to be a fraud in regards to his claims…there was no such person as Hasaka Yutashi.”

If founded in 1999 as Gordon claims that means there has been a Soke about every other year based on that number. I could have sworn it began with Yutashi, to Sirbaugh, to Hatfield, then to him. You can view it yourself here at this link in the archives.

I don’t believe Hasaka Yutashi has ever existed and if he does or did Gordon would have long ago presented solid and stable evidence to the contrary in light of the massive scrutiny he has been under since 2020. The picture from the Kodokai is not his to use and the people in it are able to be verified. According to many people in the Daito Ryu community, as this article was being finalized,  I have been informed Gordon has been instructed to take down those pictures and cease any claims to them. Now whether or not this is true or if he would comply to such demands I have no idea. But it does appear many in the Daito Ryu community are quite upset that he dared to use their property as his own in an attempt to pass himself off as more than what he really is.

From changing stories, histories that do not mesh, multiple claims that have fallen apart over the last two years it appears unlikely that anything Gordon has presented on this matter is at all honest or true. Just like with his Jidokwan claims it is found once more that he has been using items which were not his to use, yet was using them all the same.

I do not believe Gordon is a headmaster of a system founded by Hasaka Yutashi, and he never was. The entire story is one he himself, and possibly with the help of his sensei Steven Hatfield created. And if Yutashi is real then I demand Gordon publicly refute the claims of the many people in Daito Ryu, a school he states his art traces back to. I say let him call them liars just as he did with Ed Mathna, Kay Fuzy, Buddy Brown and others while he was clinging to his Jidokwan claims. Mind you, he for years asserted a connection directly to Fuzy.  

Or maybe he will remain silent on the matter. He does have a court case coming up as he loves to remind those who dare to disagree with him. Perhaps he will offer the evidence of  his founder then. Or maybe he will realize the jig is up and rebrand his system to something more nominal….like Bret-Jutsu.

And when you think about it that name does sound better than the unholy abomination of “American Yoshinkan Aikijujutsu,” doesn’t it?