1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a receiver that receives an image including at least a character image; a path calculator that calculates separation paths, which are segments for separating the character images in the image received by the receiver; a feature amount calculator that calculates feature amounts of the separation paths in a plurality of directions calculated by the path calculator; a selector that determines a separation direction of the image and a state of the character image on the basis of the feature amounts calculated by the feature amount calculator and selects a separation path among the separation paths in the plurality of directions on the basis of determination result; a separator that separates the image into a plurality of partial images using the separation path selected by the selector; and a recursive processing determining unit that determines whether or not to perform recursive processing on the basis of a state of the character image in the image separated by the separator, wherein the path calculator calculates the separation paths, which are the segments for separating the character image in the image separated by the separator, when the recursive processing determining unit determines to perform the recursive processing.