To provide a wiper mechanism suitable for a small-sized printer, which makes ink hardly fly about, and which enables a nozzle surface of a head to be perfectly wiped, while reducing an operation load.

This inkjet recording apparatus comprises a carriage which is equipped with a recording head and does printing by reciprocating scanning movement, and a wiper which is arranged in the scanning range of the carriage and performs a wiping operation by moving in such a manner as to be capable of protruding/receding with respect to the height of the nozzle surface of the recording head. The carriage is stopped in a state wherein a wiper blade is deflected in a position midway through the wiping operation, and the wiper moves in the direction of reducing the deflection of an elastic body, when performing the unperformed wiping operation for perfectly wiping the nozzle surface up to its end.