A method to obtain microscopic descriptions of Λ hypernuclei is formulated in the framework of the unitary-model-operator approach. A unitarily transformed Hamiltonian is introduced and given in a cluster expansion form. The structure of three-body cluster terms are discussed, in particular, with regard to the Λ single-particle energy. The Λ single-particle energies including the three-body cluster contributions are calculated for the 0s 1/2 , 0p 3/2 and 0p 1/2 states in 17 Λ O, and for the 0s 1/2 , 0p 3/2 , 0p 1/2 , 0d 5/2 , 0d 3/2 and 1s 1/2 states in 41 Λ Ca, using the Nijmegen soft-core (NSC), NSC97a-f, and the Jülichà (JÃ) and JB hyperon-nucleon interactions. It is found that the three-body cluster terms bring about sizable effects in the magnitudes of the Λ single-particle energies, but affect the Λ spin-orbit splittings only little.at Univ. of Massachusetts/Amherst Library on July 12, 2015where c † (c) is the creation (annihilation) operator for a nucleon in the usual notation, and d † (d) is the creation (annihilation) operator for a hyperon, Λ or Σ . The kinetic energies of a nucleon and a hyperon are denoted by t N 1 and t Y , respectively. The quantities v N 1 N 2 and v YN 1 represent the nucleon-nucleon (NN ) and hyperon-nucleon (YN ) interactions, respectively. The symbols α, β, γ and δ are used for the sets of