The present invention relates to a curved optical waveguide which is free of any axis-deviation structure in the middle of the waveguide and which has a sigmoidal core shape, wherein the curvature thereof at one end is zero and the curvature thereof at the other end is finite (>0) and the use of such a curved optical waveguide permits the reduction of optical loss at the connected portions to the lowest possible level even when it is applied to, for instance, an optical splitter or a directional coupler and the curved optical waveguide of the present invention can provide an optical waveguide which never requires the use of any offset.