To provide a stripe projection light cutting microscope method which obtains a super-high resolution and a natural light cut image and permits real- time observation.

This method includes a component separation stage and a component demodulation stage. In the component separation stage, a diffraction grating 21 which modulates an observation object O is moved to plural positions, and plural modulation images of the observation object, which are obtained by causing space modulation consisting of plural modulation components to act on the observation object O while changing a component ratio of modulation components, are picked up by an image pickup element 22, and linear calculation is used to separate modulation image components corresponding to respective modulation components from modulation images the number of which is larger than the number of modulation components with respect to these obtained modulation images. In the component demodulation stage, at least one of separated modulation image components is demodulated.