To provide a reference model adaptive control system and a reference model adaptive control method that can obtain an objective control characteristic while suppressing the amplitude of a nonlinear input term which is apt to excite chattering, without requiring many sensors and cables, and having neither overshoot nor steady-state error.

This reference model adaptive control system comprises a disturbance observer 2 outputting disturbance d and a state quantity x as the estimates on the basis of a system model based on a state equation including the state quantity x; a reference model 3 specifying the operation reference of a controlled system 1; and a reference model adaptive controller 4 outputting control input u so as to converge the error e between the estimate and the reference value on the basis of the estimates of the disturbance d and state quantity x, and a reference value r.