This rotating apparatus refers both to a lathe and a potter’s wheel. It is used in ceramic arts, fine wood-working, and metalwork, and is useful in making accurately rounded forms. It was invented in Mesopotamia around 4,000 B.C.E. and spread throughout Europe, Egypt and western regions of China. In metalworking, lathes served to polish the material and incise designs upon the surface of an object. The appearance of the term “lathe/wheel worker” as a metal crafts man in the Shōsō-in komonjo indicates that there were specialists in this type of work during the Nara period.