Now Available: Essay 1052 on 靴 (shoes), Revisions, and Content Notification

The 126th essay has posted! Essay 1052 on 靴 (shoes, footwear) is now available for purchase. Here's a preview:

How did Japan come to make shoes from straw and wood? Why is the "leather" radical all but useless in 靴? How can you say "break in shoes," "tie shoelaces," and "wear two hats (actually shoes!)" in Japanese? How can "red shoes" not be shoes, and who in Japan famously wore red shoes? How have Japanese shoes indicated status? Find out all of these answers and much more!

I also posted minor revisions to two essays:

• Essay 1128 on 鬼 (devil)

• Essay 1552 on 沢 (marsh; plentiful) 

Finally, the site has improved in a few ways:

• After reintroducing JOKIA, we made cosmetic changes to the page and added definitions for each kanji (very important!)

• If you want the site to notify you whenever new content appears, you now have that option! If you have already registered on the site, go to your user page, click on the "notifications settings" tab, and select "enabled" for all the options that appeal to you. Here's an example of how you might fill it out (and these happen to be the default settings for those who create accounts from now on):

If you have opted to be notified, the site will do a weekly survey of all content added over the past seven days and will email you with an update. This should make it easier for you to keep up with all that's happening on Joy o' Kanji!