Disclosed is a bending control mechanism for an
endoscope according to the invention, which is characterized in that the bending control mechanism includes a bending portion provided in an
insertion portion of the
endoscope; a bending wire extended out from the bending portion in order to control the bending portion; a
pulley as made operable in link with a bending control lever through the shaft portion of the
pulley, the bending control lever being provided in the control portion of the
endoscope; a driving wire winding groove as spirally formed on the outer
peripheral surface of the
pulley as well as in the
peripheral direction of the pulley; a driving wire wound around the driving wire winding groove of the pulley; a connection member connecting the driving wire with the bending wire; and a guide member provided in the control portion and including a connection member slidably mounted thereon, wherein in the state where the most driving wire is would round the pulley, a relative position between the pulley and the guide member is determined such that the extending direction of the driving wire is substantially in parallel with the guide surface of the guide member. With the constitution of the above bending control mechanism, there is no need for any excess force to be used for winding up the driving wire round the pulley by using the bending control lever, and it become possible to control the bending portion with smaller force. Thus,
controllability of the endoscope is improved and also, durability of the driving wire is improved.