To provide a preceding vehicle spray recognition device for surely recognizing that a vehicle in front is traveling flying up spray or the like.

This preceding vehicle spray recognition device is provided with a camera 4 and an image memory 2 for fetching an image ahead of its own vehicle, an image fetching part 31 and a processor 3 for setting a colors number reduction threshold from the luminance distribution of the image, and for operating conversion processing for colors-number-reducing the fetched image into images in four colors, and for judging that a vehicle ahead of its own vehicle is traveling flying up spray or smoke of snow from the stepwise change of the colors-number-reduced image.