Using PHP library to store json encoded utf-8 values appears to add content as an attachment with no reason

when attempting to add a document with the following value:
{"ent_seq":"1000000","r_ele":[

{"reb":"\u30fd"}

,

{"reb":"\u304f\u308a\u304b\u3048\u3057"}

],"sense":[{"pos":["&n;"],"gloss":[

{"lang":"en","gend":null,"value":"repetition mark in katakana"}

,

{"lang":"ger","gend":null,"value":"(n) Wiederholung"}

,

{"lang":"ger","gend":null,"value":"Refrain"}

]}]}

Fails. However, adding this string in via the couchbase admin ui works correctly.

The failure is it adds it as an attachment, not as a document. This breaks the functionality of views. The get method works properly and returns the array data.