Talk:Chindōgu

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a battery powered battery charger, that can recharge 2 D-Cell batteries using 6 D-Cell Batteries
a solar powered flashlight, that can only be used in broad day light

Are these two examples actually taken from the book that is referenced in the article? I don't remember them from my reading of it. Worse, they don't really sound like chindogu at all to me — a solar-powered flashlight is an obviously stupid idea that fails to make the 'ostensibly useful' criterion that really defines a chindogu. The other example isn't much better.

I'll give it a few days and then delete the two additions, unless someone can justify their inclusion. R Lowry 12:54, 11 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

- Ok. I've removed them. R Lowry 10:12, 14 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Solar Powered Flashlight was in the book actually.--Richy 21:36, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've used a solar powered flashlight - its solar cell charged a battery, so you'd leave it by a window and be able to use it in emergencies. Admittedly, still more of a novelty than a wonderful invention. -- stillnotelf has a talk page 22:46, 4 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Meaning of Chindogu or 珍道具

In a previous version of the article, "chin" or 珍was translated as "unusual." That's not true though. That kanji character 珍 means priceless, valuable or treasure. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.146.12.236 (talk) 14:48, 27 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

According to what?

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1MKU73cd

shows it as "rare; curious; strange"

I've switched it back to 'unusual' since that seems more correct (to me).

68.60.168.46 19:33, 25 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

woth mentioning alternative spelling?

on It'll Never Work, the titles for the segment called it the "Shindogu Useless Invention Society". Worth mentioning? or let it slip into the mists of time. (though, since the segment was done with the assistance of Kenji Kawakami, it seems unlikely that it was just a research error) 82.13.83.244 20:12, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The On reading on the character is "chin", so I would say it was an uncaught typo.

68.60.168.46 23:52, 25 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Steven M. Johnson - similar ideas - much earlier

https://www.facebook.com/steven.m.johnson.77 http://www.patentdepending.com/Patent_Depending/Steven_M._Johnson.html

"The year 2014 represents my 52nd year as an occasional inventor, whimsicalist and possibilitist. Fifty-two years is a full cycle in the Mayan calendar! Though creating invention-themed cartoons has been for me nothing more than a sideline business, I’ve never stopped amusing myself by tinkering with ideas for plausible or outrageous products, or by trying to anticipate future trends and inventions. Sometimes I have actually foreseen a trend, as in 1975 when I drew pre-torn clothing, or in 1992 when I drew a product similar to Google Glass, long before others came up with the same idea. Many of my 1991 predictions in Public Therapy Buses have come true. Many have not."

Should this really be an article?

After coming across this article, I was a little weirded out about there not being a Japanese page about what is touted as a "Japanese art" (the article about Kenji Kawakami even calls it a "Japanese craze"), that is presented as something widespread, but after searching the Japanese Wikipedia on the subject and spending some time on Google, it's pretty clear the entire concept (and all of the examples) of chindogu is just the product of one man, and is about as well known in Japan as you'd expect a single guy doing crazy stuff in a country of 125 million to be. To put things into perspective, here's an English translation of an interview with the creator: http://pingmag.jp/2008/01/11/chindougu/ (the original Japanese text is available on the same site) In the very least, this article completely blows the phenomenon out of proportion, presenting the works of a single man like some sort of national or even international movement. 93.132.185.28 (talk) 16:24, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I am a Japanese native speaker, but I have never heard of this term.I am not sure about its notability. --saebou (talk) 10:52, 8 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]