It is an object of the invention to provide a method of extracting a crossing/branching portion of a blood vessel from a fundus image of the eye at a high probability. The crossing/branching portion of the blood vessel is extracted from the fundus image under such conditions that three or more blood vessels run on an outer circumferential portion of an extraction candidate region and that a coordinate average of a plurality of blood vessels in the outer circumferential portion exists in a center portion of the extraction candidate region.
