A gesture recognition apparatus is caused to correctly recognize start and end of a gesture without use of special unit by a natural manipulation of a user and low-load processing for the gesture recognition apparatus. The gesture recognition apparatus that recognizes the gesture from action of a recognition object taken in a moving image includes: a gravity center tracking unit that detects a specific subject having a specific feature from the moving image; a moving speed determining unit that computes a moving speed per unit time of the specific subject; a moving pattern extracting unit that extracts a moving pattern of the specific subject; and a start/end judgment unit that discriminates movement of the specific subject as an instruction (such as an instruction to start or end gesture recognition processing) input to the gesture recognition apparatus when the moving speed and the moving pattern satisfy predetermined conditions.