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I would love to use Aozra Books as a learning tool, but the accuracy of its
ふりがな concerns me. [This
book](http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/773_14560.html), for example,
claims 私 is pronounced わたくし instead of わたし.

Is the former a proper pronunciation?
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furigana
How accurate is the ふりがな on Aozora Books?
That is a proper reading. 「私」 can be read as 「わたし」, 「わたくし」, or one of several
archaic ways given the context.
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In Japanese schools, we were taught that 「わたくし」 was the only correct kun-
reading for 「私」. Read it another way, you got marked off.

Originally, this was all I was going to say in my answer. However, I did a
quick research and found that it changed in 2010. Now, both わたくし and わたし are
correct kun-readings.

<http://flat.kahoku.co.jp/u/flat01/Nmx1WERoJuzy7OhDPtQc>

<http://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A7%81>
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2014-01-02T12:49:18.103
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To answer the question in the title, the furigana in Aozora files are the
furigana that were actually used in the printed original. So they are accurate
in the sense that they represent actual usage.

However, because most of the books there are very old (the majority being
prewar), that usage often does not reflect what the Ministry of Education
deems acceptable today. In the first few lines of Ozaki Hōsai's "Yogisha", for
example, I see 離婚{わか}れて and 妾{わたし}.
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