An endoscope bending control apparatus includes: an image feature value calculating section for calculating, based on an endoscopic image, an image feature value related to a luminal dark part； a bending control section for performing bending control on a bending portion in either one of a first bending operation mode in which a position of the luminal dark part is set as an insertion target and a distal end of the insertion portion is directed to the position and a second bending operation mode in which the distal end of the insertion portion is directed in a direction of the position of the luminal dark part； an operation mode switching section for switching an operation mode from one bending operation mode to the other according to a first switching condition based on the calculated image feature value； and a switching condition changing section for changing the first switching condition.
