PURPOSE: To reduce an influence on an ink discharge state by cleaning ink remaining on an ink discharge opening surface.

CONSTITUTION: A carriage 8 on which a printing head is mounted moves to a cleaning home position 6 for purging and cleaning. An adaptor 3 applied to a counter abuts against a carriage side face. The adaptor 3 applied to the counter pushes a wiping member blade 5 just before a carriage end part comes in contact with the wiping member blade 5, and rubs in a counter direction (a). Then, the carriage 8 moves while being integrated into the adaptor 3 applied to the counter to carry out cleaning (b). An ink absorbing material 9 exists at the carriage end part, and wipes ink stuck to the wiping member 5 off. The carriage 8 is reciprocated several times to scrape the ink away (c) thoroughly.