The many faces of Sanseiru

 Sanseiru kata of Goju-Ryu is interesting for many reasons. One of them is that there seems to be more versions and variations of sanseiru than any other kata. The other interesting aspect is the story that only Kyoda learned sanseiru from Kanryo Higashionna because Chojun Miyagi was away on military service during the time the kata was taught.

Today I wanted to go over some of the different versions of the kata that exist, centring mostly on the Seiko Higa lineage. It might be surprising to hear that even just within Higa's lineage, there are multiple variations.  Let's start with the first one.

1.) Juei Tamaki's Sanseiru

Juei Tamaki was a senior student of Seiko Higa, and the oldest one having been born in 1905. The version below is performed by his senior student Zensei Gushiken. 

The key differences from the usual Goju sanseiru is the knee strike at the beginning, and also the absence of the two chudan uke near the end. The final turn is also in a different direction.

2.) Kanki Izumikawa lineage Sanseiru 

This version of sanseiru is performed by Tsubamoto sensei, a senior student of Sosui Ichikawa. Ichikawa was one of the senior students of Kanki Izumikawa. This is a bit closer to the standard sanseiru, with the kensetsu geri at the beginning a major difference. As a side note, when I visited the Komeikan dojo of Toru Miyagi, they had this same kick at the beginning of their sanseiru.  

3.) Seikichi Toguchi's Sanseiru

The Shoreikan sanseiru is a fairly standard version overall. Toguchi was initially a student of Seiko Higa, then later became a senior student of Chojun Miyagi as well. The kata is performed by Hirakawa sensei who was one of his senior students in Japan. 

4.) Chosin Ishimine's Sanseiru

Chosin Ishimine was another long term senior student of Seiko Higa. Here we see one of his students performing Sanseiru. This version is vastly different not just from the usual Goju-Ryu sanseiru, but any other version shown so far. One interesting thing to note is the use of the open hand block in place of the usual chudan uke. This is similar to what is seen in to'on-ryu. 

5.) Seiko Fukuchi's Sanseiru

Seiko Fukuchi was another senior student of Seiko Higa. He assisted Higa teaching karate at the prison as well as at the Shodokan dojo. The kata below is performed by Tetsuhiro Hokama who was one of his most senior students. For the most part this follows a fairly standard pattern. 

So, there it is, five different versions from five different lineages of Seiko Higa. When it comes to the other kata, they are much more similar. The question then is, why is sanseiru so different? Was there in fact more than one version that was taught? I have a feeling it may never be definitively solved but it is interesting to think about.