Chindōgu: The Japanese Art of Unuseless Inventions
You have
definitely seen a chindōgu. They are those ridiculous Japanese inventions
designed to solve a particular problem but are, in fact, so clumsy and
inelegant that they are an inconvenience to use, and generate a whole lot of
new problems. A few examples of chindōgu are: chopsticks with a miniature
electric fan to cool noodles on the way to the mouth; glasses with attached
funnels that allow the wearer to apply eye drops with accuracy; tiny umbrellas
attached to cameras to take picture in the rain; a toilet plunger with a ring
at one end that attaches to train-car ceilings and functions as a handrail in
crowded carriages, and so on.
“Basically,
chindogu is the same as the Industrial Revolution in Britain,” says Kenji
Kawakami, who coined the term chindōgu, which means “weird tool” in Japanese.
“The one big difference is that while most inventions are aimed at making life
more convenient, chindogu have greater disadvantages than precursor products,
so people can’t sell them. They’re invention dropouts.”
A
360-degree camera hat for taking panoramic pictures.
Chindōgus are not exactly useful, but somehow not altogether useless either,
says Kawakami. He has another word for these silly little
contraptions—”unuseless.”
Kawakami
started inventing some 30 years ago when he was working as an editor for a
popular home shopping magazine called Tsuhan
Seikatsu, aimed towards countryside-dwelling housewives who liked
to shop but found it too inconvenient to get to the cities where the stores
were. In one of the issues, Kenji had a few extra pages at the end of the
magazine and he decided to fill them with some of his bizarre prototypes that
the readers couldn’t buy. The Eye Drop Funnel Glasses was one of the first
product to feature in the magazine. Kawakami claims that he actually uses this
tool to hydrate his eyes without the medicine rolling down his cheek. Another
early chindōgu was the Solar-powered Flashlight with a huge solar panel that
Kawakami built himself. Unlike those available in stores today, Kawakami’s
flashlight didn’t come with rechargeable batteries that could be charged during
the day and used at night. Instead, it needed full sunshine to function, which
renders the flashlight useless.
His
chindōgu were an instant hit, and as readers demanded more, Kawakami was forced
to come up with new ideas for the entertainment of his readers. Over the years,
he developed a set of rules—the 10 tenets—for proper chindōgu creation.
These
ten commandments of chindōgu are as follows:
- A Chindōgu cannot be for real use — They must be, from a practical
point of view, (almost) completely useless. “If you invent something which
turns out to be so handy that you use it all the time, then you have
failed to make a Chindogu,” it says.
- A Chindōgu must exist — A Chindōgu must be something that
you can actually hold, even if you aren’t going to use it.
- There must be the spirit of anarchy — A chindogu must be an object that
have broken free from the chains of usefulness. They represent freedom of
thought and action.
- Chindōgu are tools for everyday life — Chindōgu must be useful (or
useless) to everyone around the world for everyday life.
- Chindōgu are not for sale — Chindōgu cannot be sold. “If you
accept money for one, you surrender your purity,” it says.
- Humor must be the sole reason for
creating a chindōgu — The creation of Chindogu is fundamentally a problem-solving
activity. Humor is simply the by-product of finding an elaborate or
unconventional solution to a problem.
- Chindōgu is not propaganda — Chindōgu should be innocent. They
should not be created as a perverse or ironic comment on the sorry state
of mankind.
- Chindōgu are never taboo — Chindōgu must adhere to society’s
basic standards.
- Chindōgu cannot be patented — Chindōgu cannot be copyrighted,
patented, collected and owned.
- Chindōgu are without prejudice — Everyone should have an equal
chance to enjoy every Chindōgu.
A
baby romper that also functions as a mop.
According
to a 2001 article on Japan Times, Kawakami has made over 600 chindogu since he
began inventing. Yet he doesn’t own any patents and has never made a single yen
by selling his creations (see tenet no#5 and #9).
“I
despise materialism and how everything is turned into a commodity,” the
70-year-old inventor once said. “Things that should belong to everyone are
patented and turned into private property. I’ve never registered a patent and I
never will because the world of patents is dirty, full of greed and
competition.”
However,
this has not stopped others from stealing his ideas. One of his invention, a
two-sided slippers can be bought at a well-known Japanese chain store. “Some
people have no principles,” he says in disgust. “They’ll do anything for
money.”
What
started as a joke is now a form of art practiced by over 10,000 chindōgu
practitioners all around the world.
Despite
the seemingly universal appeal for his inventions and their purpose to amuse,
Kawakami laments that sometimes he is not taken seriously.
“In
Europe they treat me as an artist. In Australia and Canada, I’m called a
scientist. In China and Hong they wonder why I don’t try to make money from my
inventions. But in Japan and the US, they consider me a maker of party goods,”
Kawakami bemoans.
Noodles cooler
This back-scratch guide t-shirt makes scratching your
friend’s back easier.
Butter-stick
Shoe broom and dustpan
Eye drop funnel glasses
Finger toothbrush
Flu headset
Lipstick guide.
Subway sleeper
Umbrella for camera
Umbrella for shoes
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