An image forming method comprising a charging step of charging an image bearing member with a charging member, an electrostatic latent image forming step of forming an electrostatic charge image on the image bearing member thus charged, a developing step of developing the electrostatic charge image with a toner thereby forming a toner image, a transfer step of transferring the toner image, formed on the image bearing member, onto a recording medium either using or without using an intermediate transfer member, a fixing step of heat fixing the toner image onto the recording medium, and a cleaning step of cleaning a surface of the image bearing member after the image transfer with a cleaning member, wherein the image bearing member has a universal surface hardness HU of 150 to 220 N/mm 2 and an elastic deformation ratio We of 40 to 65%, said universal surface hardness HU and elastic deformation ratio We being measured by the following conditions -: in an environment of a temperature of 25°C and a humidity of 50%, a Vickers tetragonal cone diamond indenter with an angle between the opposite faces of 136° is used, a final value of the load to be continuously applied to the indenter (final load) is 6 mN, a time period (retention time) during which the_indenter was kept under the final load of 6 mN is 0.1 s; the charging member is a contacting charging roller so provided as to be brought into contact with the image bearing member, that a rotary axis of the contact charging roller and a rotary axis of the image bearing member mutually cross with a crossing angle θ (°), which is measured as described in the description and the figures; the cleaning member is a cleaning blade so provided as to be brought into contact with the image bearing member; abrasive particles are present in a contact portion between the cleaning blade and the image bearing member, said abrasive particles being supplied to the contact portion by a development with toner particles externally added with the abrasive particles, or by a separate supply of the abrasive particles by means of a supply member; and for a ratio A (% by weight) of the abrasive particles in the transfer residual toner reaching the cleaning blade and for a contact pressure B (g/cm) of the cleaning blade, HU, We, A, B and θ satisfy the following relations, and: 1 / 6000 × HU × We ≤ A × B A / B ≤ θ 10 ≤ B ≤ 50 the abrasive particles have: an average primary particle size of 30 to 300 nm; a cubic and/or rectangular parallelepiped particulate shape; a perovskite crystalline structure; and a content of particles and agglomerates having a particle size of 600 nm or larger, equal to or less 1% by number. in an environment of a temperature of 25°C and a humidity of 50%, a Vickers tetragonal cone diamond indenter with an angle between the opposite faces of 136° is used, a final value of the load to be continuously applied to the indenter (final load) is 6 mN, a time period (retention time) during which the_indenter was kept under the final load of 6 mN is 0.1 s; an average primary particle size of 30 to 300 nm; a cubic and/or rectangular parallelepiped particulate shape; a perovskite crystalline structure; and a content of particles and agglomerates having a particle size of 600 nm or larger, equal to or less 1% by number.