An aqueous ink composition contains at least one pigment selected from the group consisting of a condensed azo pigment, a condensed polycyclic pigment, a phthalocyanine pigment, and a nickel complex azo pigment, at least an anionic surfactant with ethylene oxide group or a nonionic surfactant with ethylene oxide group as a dispersant, a wetting agent, a penetrating agent, and water, with the ink composition having a surface tension of 20 mN/m or more and less than 35 mN/m. A yellow ink containing at least one pigment selected from the group consisting of C.I. Pigment Yellow 128, C.I. Pigment Yellow 138, C.I. Pigment Yellow 151, C.I. Pigment Yellow 97, and C.I. Pigment Yellow 150, a magenta ink containing at least one pigment of C.I. Pigment Red 122 or C.I. Pigment Violet 19, a cyan ink containing at least one pigment of C.I. Pigment Blue 15:3 or C.I. Pigment Blue 15:4, each color ink further containing a specific anionic surfactant and a water-soluble organic solvent, and a black ink containing C.I. Pigment Black 7 are used together as a set of color ink compositions for ink-jet recording.