A water-based ink containing a pigment, a dispersant for dispersing the pigment, a water-soluble organic solvent, and water. The dispersant used is at least one compound selected from (a) a copolymer having a hydrophilic part and a hydrophobic part, the hydrophilic part having at least one monomer containing a long-chain nonionic group selected from the following formulae (I) to (III), and .alpha., .beta.-ethylenic unsaturated carboxylic acid,CH.sub.2 .dbd.C(R)--COO--(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.m H (I)CH.sub.2 .dbd.C(R)--COO--(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.n --(CH.sub.2).sub.l H(II)CH.sub.2 .dbd.C(R)--COO--(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.p -phenyl-(CH.sub.2).sub.q H (III)where R is H or CH.sub.3, m and n are each a numeral from 2 to 24, l is a numeral from 1 to 12, p is a numeral from 1 to 12, and q is a numeral from 1 to 16; and (b) polyethyleneimine. The ink may be used in an apparatus and according to the present ink jet recording method.