Since more than a century ago, rotational testing has been used as a quantitative test for the estimation of canal-oriented vestibulo-ocular-reflex (VOR). Originally, rotational stimuli were induced by manual rotation of a chair, and the eye movements after sudden cessation of rotation were observed and recorded by counting the number of nystagmus and measuring the duration of the rotational sensation. With the development of devices for recording eye movements (including ENG and VOG), VOR and its visual modulation (suppression and enhancement) has been studied more intensively in both the clinical and basic science fields. The frequency range applicable to rotational testing is between 0.01 to 1.5Hz. In this range, both vestibular and visual sensations can be used as signal sources for sensing head movements. Wide frequency rotational testing, in which the subject is rotated sinusoidally at several frequencies using a high torque motor is advantageous in that the VOR dynamics can be quantitatively assessed and even fitted by a numerical model. However, it is time- and space-consuming and also expensive, and has, therefore, failed to become popular in clinical practice. However, measuring VOR and its visual modulation at a single frequency still provides useful information regarding vestibular function and imbalance, and about the lesion site (peripheral or central). Also, recording and analyzing VOR and its visual modulation against manual rotation can be performed within a few minutes in routine vestibular clinical practice. In this paper, the history of rotational testing is reviewed and its future application is discussed.