kurobuta: metaphony to kurabuta

[Benjamin Barrett]

Kurobuta (< Japanese: 黒豚, lit. black pig) is well established among foodies as Berkshire pork. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurobuta) says "Kagoshima Kurobuta" is trademarked, but it wouldn't surprise me to find something at a restaurant labelled as "kurobuta/kurabuta" that isn't from Kagoshima.

The earliest hit I see on Google books for "kurobuta" is from around 1986 (I found one later year but it was a stamp):

c. 1986: "麻布大学獣医学部研究報告" (http://bit.ly/1oVAuor)

Kurabuta, a spelling probably from English progressive metaphony, gets 50K hits. The earliest two I see on Google are:

2004: "Differentiation through our genes" (http://bit.ly/XweJWY)
2005: "Kurabuta Ham Recipe" (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/301154)

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

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