I first met James Lee Byars in Kyoto in early 1967 and, at his invitation, participated in his "performance." At the time I didn't know that he'd been back and forth between Japan and the U.S. for nearly a decade already. I was also unaware that he had already done one-man shows and taken part in independent exhibitions. Nor did I have any inkling that Byars would go on to become "one of the most mythic artistic figures" of the 20th century, as the Museum of Modern Art in New York called him in presenting his art and performance works in 2014.