Although Tokyo Tech is best known for science, the school has spawned important artists. Two graduates who left especially distinctive artistic legacies were the potters Kanjiro Kawai (1890–1966) and Shoji Hamada (1894–1978). Both were leaders in Japan's folk-art movement, which exalted the simple beauty of utilitarian works by anonymous artisans. Both studied ceramics at Tokyo Tech and became friends there. Exports of porcelain ware were long a valuable source of foreign exchange for Japan, and ceramics technology was an important part of the curriculum in Tokyo Tech's early years.

Hamada befriended the British potter Bernard Leach, who lived in Japan and who participated in the folk-art movement. The two traveled together to the United Kingdom in 1920 and established a pottery studio in St. Ives, which continues to operate as the Leach Pottery.

Kawai, meanwhile, produced a prodigious volume of work that was of consistently remarkable quality. He earned international acclaim, capturing grand prix recognition at the Paris International Exposition of 1937 and at the Milan Triennale of 1957.