However, even though Kuge had lost their actual power, they strived to elevate the authority of the Emperor as the main branch of a family in cultural activities such as sado (tea ceremony) and haikai (seventeen-syllable verse), and starting with the final authority to decide the name of era when changing it, all official court ranks of shogun and daimyo were ceremoniously granted by the Emperor, and the Emperor was an existence having important meaning as the source of authority (against this fact, the bakufu also tried to reduce the Emperor's authority to being ceremonious by intervening in changing the name of the era and personal matters).
しかしながら公家は実権は失っていたものの茶道・俳諧等の文化活動においてその嫡流たる天皇の権威高揚に努め、天皇は改元にあたって元号を決定する最終的権限を持っていたこと（元号勅定の原則）を始め、将軍や大名の官位も、儀礼上全て天皇から任命されるものであり、権威の源泉として重要な意味を持つ存在であった（これに対しても幕府が元号決定や人事への介入を行い、その権威の縮小・儀礼化を図っている）。