An ink jet recording apparatus includes a recording head, an ink tank, and two ink routes. The recording head is mounted on a carriage moving along a recording surface of a recording medium and discharges ink and thereby performs recording on the recording medium. The ink tank is disposed inside the recording apparatus and stores ink to be supplied to the recording head. The two ink routes connect the ink tank and the recording head and are capable of circulating ink between the ink tank and the recording head. One of the ink routes is an ink supply path that supplies ink from the ink tank to the recording head, and the other ink route is an ink reflux path that returns ink from the head to the ink tank. The ink reflux path is capable of being fluidly connected to and disconnected from the recording head.