China is the likely source of quite a number of forms of juggling, such as plate spinning, diabolo, and devil stick. However, those forms of juggling eventually spread to other lands and are now practiced around the world. Jar juggling, however, has almost exclusively been performed by Chinese artists.
Jar juggling has been practiced in China for at least 1800 years, as the depiction below (and the clarifying illustration) is from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 – 220 A.D.) and was unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in 1954.
Jar juggling uses a variety of skills associated with other forms of juggling, such as tossing and catching, balancing, spinning, and body rolling. It could be argued that jar juggling was the precursor of ball spinning and contact juggling.
Jar juggler from the early 1900s
Below are 44 videos of jar juggling acts. While there are lots of examples of the same tricks being performed, many acts have one or two more novel creations. Enjoy.
David Cain
David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).