Chindogu: Logical (But Ineffective) Solutions to Everyday Problems

Is the winter season leaving you with a constant runny nose? The Hay Fever Hat is here to help….or not.

The latest installment of PingMag features an interview with Kenji Kawakami, the Japanese inventor responsible for the phenomenon known as chindogu. Literally translated as “unusual tools,” they are everyday gadgets that end up being more inconvenient than convenient. Chindogu took the world by storm when Kawakami’s book, 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindogu, was published in the mid-90s. It garnered so much attention that it prompted a follow-up book and even an International Chindogu Society. Kawakami says about the essence of chindogu:

“In our world, all technology is progressing, right? So I thought why not take a simple fork and make it electric. Using this fork, with a single flick of the switch you can effortlessly wind up spaghetti. The only drawback is that the spaghetti sauce goes flying everywhere. So the end result is that it really is better not to use it. And that is what “chindogu” means. It isn’t something that anyone would actually use, but it has to be a tool that a person could use.”

The most interesting part of the article was learning about the different reactions to chindogu from around the globe. For instance, in America and Japan the humor is obvious and they are seen solely as entertainment. But in countries like Korea, Canada, and Australia, they’re considered a science, while Europe hails chindogu as a “new form of Dadaism” and “contemporary art.”

Kawakami will be showing his latest doodads at a chindogu exhibition in Korea this spring.

Photo: PingMag

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