A manufacturing method of a honeycomb structure which comprises: a forming step of forming a forming material to form a quadrangular pillar-shaped honeycomb formed body having partition walls defining and forming a plurality of cells which become through channels for fluid and extend from one end face to the other end face; a firing step of firing the honeycomb formed body obtained by the forming step and forming a quadrangular pillar-shaped honeycomb fired body; a coating step of coating a side surface (21a, 21b) of at least a part of the honeycomb fired body with a paste-like bonding material; a honeycomb block body preparing step of bringing the side surfaces of the plurality of honeycomb fired bodies into contact with one another and performing bonding while performing pressurizing, to prepare a honeycomb block body in which the plurality of honeycomb fired bodies are laminated; and a grinding step of grinding a circumferential portion of the honeycomb block body and obtaining the honeycomb structure, wherein in the honeycomb block body preparing step, the bonding is performed without interposing any member other than the bonding material between the honeycomb fired bodies, and the bonding material has a shear thinning property, the bonding material containing a thickener, wherein thickener is at least one of xanthan gum, diutan gum, and Sumecton, and wherein a thixotropic index indicating the shear thinning property of the bonding material is in a range of 18 to 30, wherein the thixotropic index is evaluated using an evaluation program of evaluating the thixotropic index from creep recovery in which a constant shearing speed changes in stages, in which evaluation program there is performed an operation of continuing a state of setting the shearing speed to 0.3 (s -1) for a predetermined time, momentarily changing the shearing speed to 10 (s -1), further continuing 10 (s -1) for a predetermined time, and momentarily returning the speed to 0.3 (s -1) again, and the thixotropic index is calculated on the basis of Equation below, in which Ti indicates the thixotropic index, D 1 and D 2 indicate the shearing speeds (s -1) before and after the change, and η 1 and η 2 indicate the viscosities (mPa·s) before and after the change in D 1 and D 2: Ti = log η 1 / η 2 / log D 1 / D 2 a forming step of forming a forming material to form a quadrangular pillar-shaped honeycomb formed body having partition walls defining and forming a plurality of cells which become through channels for fluid and extend from one end face to the other end face; a firing step of firing the honeycomb formed body obtained by the forming step and forming a quadrangular pillar-shaped honeycomb fired body; a coating step of coating a side surface (21a, 21b) of at least a part of the honeycomb fired body with a paste-like bonding material; a honeycomb block body preparing step of bringing the side surfaces of the plurality of honeycomb fired bodies into contact with one another and performing bonding while performing pressurizing, to prepare a honeycomb block body in which the plurality of honeycomb fired bodies are laminated; and a grinding step of grinding a circumferential portion of the honeycomb block body and obtaining the honeycomb structure, wherein in the honeycomb block body preparing step, the bonding is performed without interposing any member other than the bonding material between the honeycomb fired bodies, and the bonding material has a shear thinning property, the bonding material containing a thickener, wherein thickener is at least one of xanthan gum, diutan gum, and Sumecton, and wherein a thixotropic index indicating the shear thinning property of the bonding material is in a range of 18 to 30, wherein the thixotropic index is evaluated using an evaluation program of evaluating the thixotropic index from creep recovery in which a constant shearing speed changes in stages, in which evaluation program there is performed an operation of continuing a state of setting the shearing speed to 0.3 (s -1) for a predetermined time, momentarily changing the shearing speed to 10 (s -1), further continuing 10 (s -1) for a predetermined time, and momentarily returning the speed to 0.3 (s -1) again, and the thixotropic index is calculated on the basis of Equation below, in which Ti indicates the thixotropic index, D 1 and D 2 indicate the shearing speeds (s -1) before and after the change, and η 1 and η 2 indicate the viscosities (mPa·s) before and after the change in D 1 and D 2: Ti = log η 1 / η 2 / log D 1 / D 2