reeds and deterring insects. The was the centre of communication for the house where the family gathered to chat and eat, and it was a cozy place around which to sleep. Though there were many possible arrangements of the rooms in a home, one of the most common, called , comprised four rooms in the raised floor portion of the house, adjacent to the . The arrangement and size of these rooms was made more flexible with the use of sliding fusuma and shōji partitions. The social status of the owner of house governed the conventions of their social relationships in the house. For example, the lowliest ranked people would sit on the earth floor whilst those above them would sit on the and those above them on the floored inner rooms. Honoured guests would sit next with their back to the . The requirements for social etiquette extended to the family and there were particular seating positions () positioned around the hearth. Typical Edo period farmhouses A number of styles of farmhouses came to maturity during the Edo period; some typical examples follow. Gasshou The -style have vast roofs that are a large form of the structural system. Their name derives from the similarity of the roof shape to two hands in prayer. They are frequently found in Gifu Prefecture. The upper floors of the two- and three-story houses are used for sericulture, with storage space for trays of silkworms and mulberry leaves. Honmune literally means "true ridge": The style has a nearly square plan with a gabled roof that is board covered. The gable end of the house is particularly impressive with its composition of beams, eaves and braces. The gable is topped by a birdlike ornament called a . Houses of this type can be found in Gunma, Nara, Yamaguchi and Kouchi prefectures. Preservation are generally treated as historic landmarks, and many have been designated for preservation by municipalities or the national government. The tremendous regional variation of has also been preserved in open-air museums such as Nihon Minka-en in Kawasaki, where examples from around Japan are on display. Minka have also been used as hotels and restaurants to be preserved. Of particular note is the , which is preserved in two villages in central Japan — Shirakawa in Gifu Prefecture and Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture — that together have been designated a World Heritage Site by