To solve the following problems: an excitation device which allows a hammer to fall freely, and blocks its falling-direction movement after the hammer hits a test object and is raised by its reaction, is unsuitable as a testing device for performing testing repeatedly, moreover impulse can not be applied to the test object more than once in one test.

With the hammer put at a preset initial position, a motor 4 is rotated at high speed in its forward direction being a direction for making a one-way clutch 5 into a non-locking state, and the hammer 6 attached to the one way clutch is allowed to fall freely in the direction of the test object 3. The motor is stopped and the hammer is locked by the one-way clutch, when a descent position detection sensor 72 detects, a predetermined number of times, passage of the hammer caused by the reaction to the application of the impulse by the hammer to the test object. After that, the motor is rotated in a direction reverse to the above direction of rotation to raise the hammer. When passage of the hammer is detected by an ascent position detection sensor 71, the motor is stopped to set the hammer at the initial position.