Liquid ejection apparatus and circulation inspection apparatus

A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:

• a liquid ejection head which has:
• an ejection orifice row formed by a plurality of ejection orifices that are arranged in a first direction and for ejecting a liquid, and a pressure chamber that communicates with the ejection orifice and has a pressure generation element configured to generate a pressure for ejecting a liquid from the ejection orifice;
• a circulation unit configured to circulate the liquid inside the pressure chamber between inside and outside of the pressure chamber;
• a drive control portion which controls operations of the liquid ejection head and the circulation unit, the drive control portion being configured to be capable of executing:
• (i) an ejection suspension operation to suspend liquid ejection from the ejection orifice;
• (ii) a circulation operation to circulate the liquid inside the pressure chamber that communicates with the ejection orifice between the inside and outside of the pressure chamber;
• and (iii) a printing operation to print an elongated inspection pattern in a second direction intersecting the first direction on a recording medium, by ejecting the liquid a plurality of times from the same ejection orifice;
• and
• a circulation inspection unit for inspecting a circulation state of the liquid ejection head on the basis of a length of the inspection pattern in the second direction.