It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting circuit for and a lighting method of a high-pressure discharge lamp whereby remarkable reduction in illuminance maintaining rate can be avoided by reducing variation in inter-electrode distance in the beginning of usage without modulating a lighting frequency. The object can be achieved by a lighting circuit configured to light a high-pressure discharge lamp by supplying an alternating lamp current, which includes at least one pulse current superimposed on the former half of each half period of a base lamp current and at least two pulse currents and superimposed on the latter half of each half period, to the high-pressure discharge lamp.