1. An image retrieval system, comprising: an image input section for inputting a retrieval target image; an image data base for storing image data; a retrieval section for retrieving a plurality of images similar to said retrieval target image, by using a feature amount of said retrieval target image from said image data base; a whole image feature extracting section for extracting a whole image feature amount from each image of the plurality of images; a filtering processing section for carrying out filtering processing using the whole image feature amount of another feature amount different from said feature amount of said retrieval target image about said Plurality of images, to obtain a filtering result; and an outputting section for outputting said filtering result.