Reversed S in Japanese transliteration


I recently found a strange spelling of a reversed S (Ƨ) on an old Japanese
matchbox label (late 19th century), in the phrase "MANUFACTURED IN
ƧEIRYUKWAN". At first I thought this was just a mistake in the graphics, or
perhaps the Latin alphabet was not well known. However, I later found an
example where the normal and reversed S occur side by side, in
"OSAKANATUƧINSIYA ƧEIZU". This does look like the artist should've noticed.
This made me wonder: is this some weird old-style form of transliteration, and
what could the difference between those twop forms be? I don't speak Japanese
unfortunately, so I couldn't come up with any guesses.




Are you referring to [this](http://arnon-
reisman.blogspot.com/search/label/Seiryukwan)?

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UCI4M.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UCI4M.jpg)

As far as I understand, 'reversed S' does not have any particular meaning, so
I suppose this is probably a mere mistake, or maybe an intentional design
element [like this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA#Official_logo). Other
matchbox images from Seiryukwan (for example,
[here](https://blog.goo.ne.jp/mz88/e/6a6ad5dd90f58378c4149796df29235a)) on the
net do not have this "problem".

