The Sanseiru kata practiced within Seiko Higa's organization has always been a bit of a puzzle to me in terms of its origins. First, this version differs in several ways from what's considered the "standard" Goju-Ryu Sanseiru.
The official story I heard is that Seiko Higa learned this version directly from Kanryo Higaonna, which makes it the oldest known version of Sanseiru. It's also been said that it shares some similarities with the Tou'on Ryu version. However, besides the shared knee strike at the beginning, I honestly don't see a lot in common. You can see a clip of it below.
While the idea that Higa learned this kata from Kanryo is possible, there's one main reason I doubt it. Outside of Higa's organization, it's not practiced by any of Higa's senior students. Kanki Izumikawa, Seiko Fukuchi and Seikichi Toguchi are three of the most senior and earliest students of Seiko Higa. Yet, none of them or their students practiced the "Higa" Sanseiru.
If Higa knew this version from the beginning, shouldn't his earliest students know it too? Why do the three I mentioned above do a more standard Sanseiru kata? This issue is further complicated by the fact that some Shodokan people have a so called Sanseiru Ichi and Sanseiru Ni. Sanseiru Ichi is the Higa version, while Sanseiru Ni is the more common Goju one we all know.
There is however one other group that has a Sanseiru kata that's nearly identical to the Shodokan, and that's Ryuei Ryu. If you comapre the video of Sakumoto, the enbusen and techniques are almost all the same.
During the 60s Kenko Nakaima taught Ryuei Ryu Kobudo to some of Seiko Higa's students, notably Juei Tamaki. Is it possible he learned Sanseiru from Nakaima too? I have also heard the reverse and that Higa's students actually taught Sanseiru to Nakaima.
In the end it's hard to say exactly what happened. Personally I think the two versions are too simialr to have been preserved that way since Ryu Ryu Ko's time. Stories also change depending on who you're talking to. We may never know where Seiko Higa's students got this version from but it's interesting to ponder.
