Ha-burashiHa-burashi means 'toothbrush', from the Japanese word ha 'tooth' and the English word 'brush'. It is normally written as 歯ブラシ, with ha in kanji and burashi in katakana. That is the form found in this sign:
While it is most natural to put kanji and katakana together like this, the entire word may sometimes be written in katakana (ハブラシ), as in the following sign:
By writing the whole word ha-burashi in katakana the disparate parts of the word are 'harmonised'. A Google search revealed the following pattern on the Internet in August 2003:
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