Properly, kosode of a dead person should be inherited as a memento or offered to a temple where prayers were said for the owner's soul, but when a high-class kosode was sold off, it was possessed by the owner's ghost who had failed to become Buddha, thus making the Kosode no te come into being.
本来、死んだ人間の小袖は形見の品となったり、寺に納められて供養されるはずが、高級な小袖が売却され、成仏できない霊がその小袖に取り憑いたものが小袖の手とされる。