The image processing apparatus of the present invention extracts an arbitrary structure included in an image obtained by imaging a biological mucosal surface as a structural region, and a predetermined plurality of types for each pixel or each region in the extracted structural region And a structure area that divides the structure into areas for each basic shape included in a plurality of types of basic shapes based on the application result of the basic shape application section that applies the mapping to the basic shape Based on the result of region division by the division unit and the structure region division unit, at least one of the appearance frequency for each basic shape in the region division result and the positional relationship between one or more basic shapes in the region division result A feature amount calculation unit that calculates a corresponding feature amount.本発明の画像処理装置は、生体粘膜表面を撮像して得た画像に含まれる任意の構造物を構造領域として抽出し、抽出した構造領域内の各画素または各領域に対して所定の複数種類の基本形状への対応付けを適用する基本形状適用部と、基本形状適用部による適用結果に基づき、構造物を所定の複数種類の基本形状に含まれる各基本形状毎に領域分割する構造物領域分割部と、構造物領域分割部による領域分割結果に基づき、領域分割結果における各基本形状毎の出現頻度、及び、領域分割結果における１種類以上の基本形状同士の位置関係のうちの少なくとも一方に応じた特徴量を算出する特徴量算出部と、を有する。
