A suture needle has: a flexible elongated shaft member； a passing mechanism (15) for passing a suture needle (3) between two gripping members, wherein the passing mechanism has fitting hole portions (11a, 12a) that are provided in the respective gripping members and that hold the suture needle in a fitting manner, a holding member movable in a direction intersecting the axis of each fitting hole portion and having a pressing surface (16b, 17b) which can press an outer circumferential surface of the suture needle held in the fitting hole portion, and a tensile-force-transmitting member (18a, 18b) coupled with the holding member and which can move along the longitudinal axis of the elongated shaft member, wherein the outer circumferential surface of the suture needle is pressed by the pressing surface against the inner circumferential surface of the fitting hole portion by the motion of the tensile-force-transmitting member.
