Unlike the merchant class tea ceremony in the Edo period in which the iemoto (the head of a tea ceremony school) system was established, the lord of each clan was, as it were, the head of each school in buke sado.
江戸時代から家元制度をとっていた町人茶と違い、武家茶道においてはいわば各藩の殿様が家元に相当する立場である。