diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js b/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
index 02735365099..d8d3949a4f7 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/attributes.js
@@ -203,6 +203,16 @@ module.exports = {
             'this option won\'t have any effect and `insidetextfont` would be used.'
         ].join(' ')
     }),
+    rotation: {
+        valType: 'angle',
+        role: 'style',
+        dflt: 0,
+        editType: 'plot',
+        description: [
+            'Rotates the whole diagram counterclockwise by some angle.',
+            'By default the first slice starts at 3 o\'clock.'
+        ].join(' ')
+    },
     sort: pieAttrs.sort,
 
     domain: domainAttrs({name: 'sunburst', trace: true, editType: 'calc'})
diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js b/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
index 201867ef3d2..b02e3ac81e7 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/defaults.js
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@ module.exports = function supplyDefaults(traceIn, traceOut, defaultColor, layout
 
     coerce('sort');
 
+    coerce('rotation');
+
     handleDomainDefaults(traceOut, layout, coerce);
 
     // do not support transforms for now
diff --git a/src/traces/sunburst/plot.js b/src/traces/sunburst/plot.js
index ef3616e4b88..dc69381c685 100644
--- a/src/traces/sunburst/plot.js
+++ b/src/traces/sunburst/plot.js
@@ -150,6 +150,14 @@ function plotOne(gd, cd, element, transitionOpts) {
     // filter out slices that won't show up on graph
     sliceData = sliceData.filter(function(pt) { return pt.y1 <= cutoff; });
 
+    if(trace.rotation && trace.rotation !== 'auto') {
+        var extraAngle = trace.rotation * Math.PI / 180;
+        sliceData.forEach(function(pt) {
+            pt.x0 += extraAngle;
+            pt.x1 += extraAngle;
+        });
+    }
+
     // partition span ('y') to sector radial px value
     var maxY = Math.min(maxHeight, maxDepth);
     var y2rpx = function(y) { return (y - yOffset) / maxY * rMax; };