Methods for exhaust gas purification, including the steps of: attaching an exhaust gas purification catalyst to an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, and supplying an exhaust gas to the exhaust gas purification catalyst, where the exhaust gas purification catalyst includes an upper layer containing first carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide and rhodium, and a lower layer containing second carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide, the upper layer includes a rhodium-rich portion near the surface of the upper layer on the upstream side of the exhaust gas flow, and the existence range of the rhodium-rich portion is in a range of greater than 50% to 80% of the length of the upper layer from a downstream side end of an exhaust gas flow and of less than 20 μm in the depth direction from an outermost surface of the upper layer.