Provided herein is an aqueous ink, which is excellent in both image density and fixing ability irrespective of the kind of a recording medium even when the volume of an ink droplet is small and has such excellent properties that white stripes are not caused even when high-speed recording is conducted. The aqueous ink comprises at least water, a water-soluble organic solvent, a water-insoluble coloring material, a surfactant and a poor medium for the water-insoluble coloring material and/or a salt. The dynamic surface tension of the aqueous ink at a lifetime of 50 milliseconds determined by a maximum bubble pressure method is higher than 47 mN/m, and the dynamic surface tension at a lifetime of 5,000 milliseconds determined by the maximum bubble pressure method is 38 mN/m or lower.