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Examples
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Known as chindogu, it is the art of the weird, strange and unuseless idea.
The Useful Japanese Invention - Yakitori Grill, Marukai Gardena e d b m 2006
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Known as chindogu, it is the art of the weird, strange and unuseless idea.
Archive 2006-07-01 e d b m 2006
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Another Kawakami term for chindogu is “unuseless inventions”, and I think several circuits in my brain have shut down permanently just by reading it.
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Added USER-AGENT filter in order to prevent unuseless connections to the translation services
unknown title 2008
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Added USER-AGENT filter in order to prevent unuseless connections to the translation services
unknown title 2008
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Added USER-AGENT filter in order to prevent unuseless connections to the translation services
unknown title 2008
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Added USER-AGENT filter in order to prevent unuseless connections to the translation services
unknown title 2008
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Added USER-AGENT filter in order to prevent unuseless connections to the translation services
unknown title 2008
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A Chindogu is supposed to be so useless, in fact, that it’s an “unuseless invention”.
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xml's Blinklist.com 2008
oroboros commented on the word unuseless
“Japanese society won’t just laugh, so inventors are not afraid to try new things,�? said Takumi Hirai, chairman of Japan’s largest association of individual inventors, the 10,000-member Hatsumeigakkai.
In fact, Japan produces so many unusual inventions that it even has a word for them: chindogu, or “queer tools.�? The term was popularized by Kenji Kawakami, whose hundreds of intentionally impractical and humorous inventions have won him international attention as Japan’s answer to Rube Goldberg. His creations, which he calls “unuseless,�? include a roll of toilet paper attached to the head for easy reach in hay fever season, and tiny mops for a cat’s feet that polish the floor as the cat prowls.
Mr. Kawakami said that while some of Japan’s anticrime devices might not seem practical, they were valuable because they might lead to even better ideas.
“Even useless things can be useful,�? he said. “The weird logic of these inventions helps us see the world in fresh ways.�?
--from NY Times article 10-19-07
"Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place"
October 20, 2007