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 in a lumen into which an insertion portion is inserted； 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 estimated referring to history information； an operation mode switching section for switching an operation mode from one bending operation mode to the other bending operation mode according to a first switching condition based on the calculated image feature value； and a switching condition changing section for changing a switching condition from the first switching condition to a second switching condition.
