Apparent contradiction in official rules for Kamisado?
You must add third fact from the official Rules (in the "Opening Moves" section):

(3). "In any round, the player that moves first is known as the Challenger. The other player is known as the Defender for that round."

This rule is "hidden" in the basic rules, not where expected - after Filling L/R. The facts (1) and (3) together suggest the option 1: the player who lost in the previous round takes the opening move. That convinced me (I had the same hesitation). There is the common sense also - the opening move is said to give considerable advantage, so the loosing player could recover and the match would prolong.

I guess the description for Figure 7(h) must be simply an overlook, and should instead read: "diagram shows the possible moves open to Alain with his purple Sumo dragon tower, if he gets the opportunity to make move with purple and if nothing is blocking the purple tower". Too complicated; the figure should have been taken from another match not to confuse people.