(Almost) Useless

These are the words that greet you on the homepage of Chindogu.com – the internet home of the International Chindogu Society. Said to boast some 10,000 practitioners around the globe (including British celebrity chef and TV personality, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall), it's a community centred on the creation and celebration of (almost) useless gadgets, or officially: Chindogu.

It all sounds terribly serious. But also not. As Chindogu's founding father Kenji Kawakami puts it: "If people laugh, that's fine. We need more of it. I believe in rejecting society by laughing at it."

It was Kawakami's Eyedrop Funnel Glasses that started it all. The trained aerospace engineer turned inventor popped an image of them on a page that needed filling in a popular Japanese mail order catalogue he was editing in the early 1990s. Though they were not for sale, he filled other empty pages with more "invention dropouts" (such as a solar powered flashlight that could only be used if there was enough light to power it) and his readers were hooked. Kawakami called them Chindogu, (Chin meaning 'weird' and Dogu meaning 'tool') and since then has contributed more than 600 gadgets to the artform.

Dan Papia , was a writer for the English language magazine Tokyo Journal at the time and after featuring Kawakami's Chindogu in that publication's pages soon experienced its cult appeal himself. It was an endless stream of Chindogu related fan mail that inspired his idea of transforming Chindogu from a 'spectator sport' into an active global community of inventors of "un-useless" things or Chindogoists. Thus, the International Chindogu Society was born with Papia as co-founder and he remains president to this day. Books followed too, first authored by Kawakami and later by both Kawakami and Papia: 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions, 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Bumper Book of Unuseless Japanese Inventions and The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions.

But just as Kawakami has never filed a patent or earned a single yen for one of his creations, revenue from the books is apparently passed on to his favourite causes. "I despise materialism and the fact that everything is transformed into a marketable object," he once told The Japan Times. Indeed, Kawakami and his fellow Chindoguists around the world thumb their noses at capitalism and instead, submit themselves to a higher code and calling. The noble pursuit of conceiving and making human-made objects that have shed the chains of usefulness (to paraphrase the third tenet of Chindogu), or as Kawakami himself defines them: "strangely practical and utterly eccentric inventions designed to solve all the nagging problems of domestic life."

The Ten Tenets of Chindogu

I. A Chindogu cannot be for real use:

It is fundamental to the spirit of Chindogu that inventions claiming Chindogu status must be, from a practical point of view, (almost) completely useless. If you invent something that turns out to be so handy that you use it all the time, then you have failed to make a Chindogu.

II. A Chindogu must exist:

You're not allowed to use a Chindogu, but it must be made. You have to be able to hold it in your hand and think "I can actually imagine someone using this. Almost." In order to be useless, it must first be.

III. There must be the spirit of anarchy:

Chindogu are man-made objects that have broken free from the chains of usefulness. They represent freedom of thought and action: The freedom to challenge the suffocating historical dominance of conservative utility; The freedom to be (almost) useless.

IV. Chindogu are tools for everyday life:

Chindogu are a form of nonverbal communication understandable to everyone. Everywhere. Specialised or technical inventions, like a musical shoe for guitar players, or a portable handle for plumbers to carry between two under-the-sink cabinet doors (the uselessness of which will only be appreciated by plumbers), do not count.

V. Chindogu are not for sale:

Chindogu are not tradable commodities. If you accept money for one, you surrender your purity. They must not even be sold. Even as a joke.

VI. Humour must not be the sole reason for creating Chindogu:

The creation of Chindogu is fundamentally a problem-solving activity. Humour is simply the by-product of finding an elaborate or unconventional solution to a problem.

VII. Chindogu is not propaganda:

Chindogu are innocent. They are made to be used, even though they cannot be used. They should not be created as a perverse or ironic comment on the sorry state of mankind.

VIII. Chindogu are never taboo:

The International Chindogu Society has established certain standards of social decency. Cheap sexual innuendo, humour of a vulgar nature, and sick or cruel jokes that debase the sanctity of living things are not allowed.

IX. Chindogu cannot be patented:

Chindogu are offerings to the rest of the world. They are not therefore ideas to be copyrighted, patented, collected and owned.

X. Chindogu are without prejudice:

Chindogu must never favour one race or religion over another. Young and old, male and female, rich and poor – All should have a free and equal chance to enjoy each and every Chindogu.