A medical instrument includes an image pickup section incorporated in a medical instrument body and movably provided in the medical instrument body that picks up an image of the object to be examined from an observation window, a covering section movably provided at the medical instrument body so as to cover the observation window and in which an opening portion is formed, a drive section that drives the covering section or the image pickup section, and a control section that controls the drive section so as to drive the covering section or the image pickup section by synchronizing a timing for the image pickup section to pick up the object image with a timing at which the opening portion and the observation window match, and can thereby prevent sticking of deposits to the observation window and obtain a clear observation image.