Rolling contact fatigue tests were performed for two types silicon nitrides using disk- type specimens. Materials showed a fatigue behaviour similar to that typically found in metallic materials From the fractographic and metallographic observations, it has been found that the crack initation in the silicon nitrides subjected to rolling contact fatigue is to be induced by cyclic subsurface shear stress, as is known in steel bearing. On the mid-sections of the specimens, many subsurface cracks which lay parallel to the contact surface can be found at a depth where fluctuation of the Herzian shear stress was the maximum