Chindogu was created by Japanese artist Kenji Kawakami in the 1990s, who describes these inventions as "un-useless." He coined the term chindogu using a combination of the Japanese words chin, meaning "strange" or "odd," and dougu, which means "device" or "tool." But chindogu is more than a mashup of words (a portmanteau, if you will); it's a philosophy. There are 10 tenets of chindogu, according to the chindogu society:
A chindogu cannot be for real use. If you end up using your invention on the regular, you have failed.
A chindogu must exist. No thought experiments allowed.
There must be the spirit of anarchy. Build your invention free from the constraints of utility or cultural expectations.
Chindogu are tools for everyday life. Everyone everywhere must be able to understand how it works without any special technical or professional background info.
Chindogu are not tradeable commodities. Finally, something in your life that you just can't turn into a side hustle.
Humor must be the sole reason for creating chindogu. Creating an elaborate way to solve a tiny problem is just funny. Roll with it.
Chindogu is not propaganda. This is not the place for your clever commentary on the dumpster fire that is the current state of the world. As the tenet makes clear: "Make them instead with the best intentions."
Chindogu are never taboo. If you demand sexual innuendo, cruel jokes and sick humor, the International Chindogu Society would ask that you find it literally anywhere else on the internet. That's not chindogu's jam.
Chindogu cannot be patented. Consider chindogu the openest of open source. They're meant to be shared and delighted in, not owned and collected.
Chindogu are without prejudice. Race, religion, gender, age, ability — none of these matter to chindogu. These inventions should be equally (almost) useless to everyone who sees them.
If You Build It, They Will (Sort of) Come
Kawakami started with a few simple inventions to fill out the back pages of a magazine he edited. He hoped his Eye Drop Funnel Glasses and Solar-powered Flashlight would amuse readers. But if there's a chindogu evangelist, it would be Dan Papia, who worked at another magazine, the Tokyo Journal. He brought chindogu to the magazine's English-speaking audience and encouraged readers to create their own inventions. In 1995, Papia started the International Chindogu Society.
Others have taken up the banner in the decades since. Maker mecca Instructables ran a chindogu contest that yielded a toothbrush light, a food magnifier that perches on a pair of chopsticks, and scuba mask wiper blades, all classics of the form.
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