IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus capable of efficiently selecting proper filter information.SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus includes a dividing section 101 which divides an image signal into a plurality of gradient calculation blocks, a determining section 103 which determines one gradient calculation pixel from pixels constituting the gradient calculation blocks, a calculation section 104 which calculates levels and angles of gradients of pixels belonging to an area including the gradient calculation pixel, a calculation section 105 which calculates a histogram based upon the levels and angles of the gradients, a retrieval section 106 which retrieves a histogram template most similar to the histogram from a storage section 107, in which a plurality of histogram templates and a plurality of pieces of filter information are stored in association with each other, and a processing section 108 which performs filter processing on the pixels constituting the gradient calculation blocks using filter information corresponding to the retrieved histogram template.