Inside, the center point of the home is the approximately one meter square "irori" (囲炉裏 sunken floor hearth) which would usually stay alight with low embers at all times. To maintain the burn, four chestnut logs would be placed inward at each corner and a small, flameless charcoal fire within the joining point at the center would slowly burn on the tips of the logs, and as the logs burned out they would be pushed slightly more into the center. The irori would be used for cooking, either with an iron pot stand or with the suspended "jizai-kagi" (自在鈎) which consists of an adjustable hook connected to a ceiling beam above and from which a pot could be hung, with the height adjusted according to the temperature sought. Often the jizai-kagi would be made of a bamboo pole with a carved wooden fish used for the hook adjusting mechanism (with the fish serving as a water talisman to ward off the danger of fire).