The present invention provides an image processing apparatus and an image processing method. The image processing apparatus includes: a first to a fourth writing FIFO unit and a first to a fourth reading FIFO unit (hereinafter referred to as "FIFO units") for temporarily retaining image data to write to and read from a data retaining memory; a memory access control unit for performing access to the data retaining memory, the access being requested by the FIFO units; and a writing data control unit for shifting, at all times by a predetermined time, timing of the request made by at least one of the FIFO units to the memory access control unit in comparison with timing of the request made by the other FIFO units to the memory access control unit.