Chindogu: Weird and Useless Japanese Inventions

One of my favorite possessions is an 18th century Japanese Sahku Dokei from the Tokugawa shogunate. It's a clock that tells time using twelve temporal hours, six for day, six for night. All the hour markers are movable, so you can adjust them as the seasons change, that way your hours are always evenly dividing the day and night.

It pretty obviously wasn't intended to be designed in the Chindogu style, as that was the standard method of telling time in Japan before the modern time system was adopted, but it sure feels like it when looking at it now.

I worked at an e‑waste center in the early 2000s that eventually shut down, and as a result still have roughly 50 pounds of old pagers in various states of disrepair.

One of my personal chindogu ideas (someday) is to wire them all up so I can control them from a phone app, then strap them to different "meridian points" on a customer to deliver an authentic beeper massage experience.

I remember in elementary school a friend had a book of these. The one I remember best was a dust mask that had been modified to receive something like 50 cigs so you could smoke them all at once.

Japanese people love umbrellas and there are many related products. On the other hand, I've heard that people in North America hardly use umbrellas. Is that true?

IIRC, these were all in one book that I read as a kid. I wish they had credited it so I could find a copy to give as a gift.

There's a really charming YouTube creator in the same vein, MUDA-ZUKURI. I had the honor of being smacked with a stack of cash by her "motivation machine".

https://youtube.com/@mudadukuri

I was initially confused since the term "Chindogu" isn't actually that common in Japan, but it turns out it was an artistic movement led by Kenji Kawakami.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu

While they are humorous, it's a serious artistic endeavor at its core, so it's not exactly "laugh-out-loud" funny. I feel like there are much crazier inventions in Japan—I wish I could think of some specific examples to share right now, but nothing is coming to mind at the moment.

One "interesting" invention (that might have seemed a bit silly at first) is fan-cooled workwear. With Japan’s summer temperatures now constantly hitting 35°C (95°F), what started as a quirky idea has become an absolute necessity.

https://kuchoufuku.com/

There’s something inherently funny about the models in the link posing so seriously while wearing clothes that are completely puffed up with air.

I've seen everyone of these before. A couple of them are strangely practical such as the eyedropper glasses and the finger toothbrush (ideal for travelling).

I want that tie with the storage pockets. Take my money!

Butter stick would actually be great