Polyphenol oxidase(PPO) isolated from the crude extract of ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi, showed higher affinity for catechol than tyrosine or DL-DOPA. Successful enzyme assay could be performed at $25^{circ}C$, 10min. by mixing 0.2ml of crude enzyme extract with 2.8ml of 0.13M catechol in 0.1M sodium phosphate buffer(pH 6.4). The specific activity of PPO which had been purified with a combination of ammonium sulfate treatment, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, and gel filtration on Sepharose 6B was 13-fold disc gel electrophoresis. The activity of PPO was stable from pH 5.0 to 8.0 and showed the peak activity at pH 6.4 .The optimum reaction temperature for PPO oxidation on catechol was 35$^{circ}C$ and those enzyme were heat stable up to 4$0^{circ}C$. Molecular weigth of the enzyme was estimated about 170kDa. One molecule was found to be composed of gour subunits. Two of them had molecular weigh of 55kDa and the others 30kDa. The {TEX}$K_{m}${/TEX} values, {TEX}$V_{max}${/TEX} and catalytic efficiency({TEX}$V_{max}${/TEX}/{TEX}$K_{m}${/TEX}) for catechol were 0.12mM, 2.5mM/liter/min. and {TEX}$0.18min^{-1}${/TEX} respectively. The substrate affinity and electrophorectic pattern suggested that the enzyme of ascidian was considered to be not tyosine but catechol oxidase.