To provide the shape of a counter electrode and a driving method with which signal amplitude is reduced.

A display device is provided with individual pixel electrodes, a counter electrode placed opposite thereto, and a liquid crystal cell LC held in a gap between them and having optical characteristics varied in accordance with a potential difference generated between each of the pixel electrodes and the counter electrode. The counter electrode consists of row counter electrodes Xcom divided corresponding to rows of the respective pixels 5. Also the display device is provided with a counter scanning circuit 4 which applies either of counter electric potentials COMMH and COMML reversing polarities by sequentially scanning the row counter electrodes Xcom in accordance with sequential selection of a pixel row with a vertically scanning circuit 2. When a horizontal driving circuit 3 writes a signal with one of the polarities in the selected pixel row, the counter scanning circuit 4 applies a counter potential with a reversed polarity to the row counter electrodes Xcom corresponding to the selected pixel row and further retains the row counter electrodes Xcom at the counter potential with the reversed polarity without change during a time period from cancellation of selection of the pixel row to the next selection.