Unuseless Japanese Inventions.

The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions
The Art of Chindogu

The Forward-Backward Glasses
For simultaneous front and rear vision

Newspaper Bath Packs
Vinyl waterproofing for broadsheet newspapers

The Noodle Eater’s Hair Guard
Helps rapid lunchers protect expensive coiffeur

Personal Rain Saver
Every drop that falls is yours to keep

Back Scratcher’s T-Shirt
The fast and logical solution to infernal itching

This post definitely falls into the AQ-V “peripherals” category. A few weeks back my guy mentioned a book of quirky Japanese inventions he had purchased in jest some years back but could no longer locate on his shelves. It seems the book was loaned out and never returned unfortunately. The “Chindogu” concept (part spoof on our western consumer culture of convenience) piqued my interest so we tracked down the ongoing book series online. Above you see images from The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions published in 2005:

From the land of the rising sun, strangely practical and utterly eccentric inventions for a life of ease—and hilarity.

In Japan Kenji Kawakami is famous for his tireless promotion of Chindogu: the art of the unuseless idea. Meant to solve problems of modern life, these bizarre and logic-defying gadgets and gizmos are actually entirely impractical.

Addicts of the unuseless will love this collection of 200 Chindogu, including the Drymobile (your laundry dries as you drive), the Solar-Powered Torch (never runs low on batteries), Duster Slippers for Cats (now the most boring job around the house becomes hours of fun… for your cat), Walk ‘n’ Wash Ankle-attachable Laundry Tanks (a perfect solution for the problems of inadequate exercise and hygiene) and many, many more.

Every one of the 200 items in The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions has actually been manufactured to the highest standards, fully tested by pioneering members of the Japanese public, and documented in their unuselessness with 442 color photographs.

About the Author
Kenji Kawakami is the inventor of the concept of Chindogu and the founder of the 10,000-member International Chindogu Society.

And if you are still unclear what constitutes Chindogu:

Chindōgu (珍道具?) is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, chindōgu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility whatsoever. Thus, chindōgu are sometimes described as “unuseless”—that is, they cannot be regarded as ‘useless’ in an absolute sense, since they do actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot positively be called “useful.”

There are three key tenets to bear in mind in designing a chindōgu. The principal among these are: (a) it has to be possible to make (i.e., it has to actually exist), in spite of its absurdity; (b) it has to remain in the public domain (i.e., it cannot be given a patent); and (c) it must not be exclusively a vehicle for humour, or the warped satirical worldview of the inventor. There is frequently humour in a chindōgu, of course, but this should properly be regarded as incidental, rather than as an end unto itself.

In spite of the stipulation that chindōgu should not be used for satirical ends, Kawakami himself does appear to regard them as a kind of antidote to consumerism, and the Western obsession with making life as ‘easy’ as possible. He describes chindōgu as “invention dropouts,” anarchically brilliant ideas that have broken free from “the suffocating historical dominance of conservative utility.” One might wish to design chindōgu for a number of reasons: for example, to improve one’s mental sharpness; to develop them as an art form; or simply to revel in a purely creative act without having to worry about utility or making money. –Wikipedia

>> International Chindogu Society
>> Chindogu Flash Site
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