By George, I think Mark may have it! How very interesting. The shape of this handle, while similar to old European depictions of Japanese swords, is notably different from that of real Japanese swords (not flat, swelled-ended), and is however similar to these dhatanas (
) and to dha in general. Could Europe have conflated two E Asian swords, especially two that are similar and even seem to have blended within that Asian sphere? Doesn't this resemble Burton's illustration of a Japanese sword?