A driving circuit of the present invention includes a signal line switching circuit section that connects each signal line with two adjacent ones of output stages of a shift register circuit, one of the two adjacent ones of output stages following the other, switches over so that the signal lines are, in the switching-over manner and in concert, driven either by the following output stages or by the followed output stages. Thus, it is possible to provide a driving circuit that can be freely placed in any manner, is suitable for many purposes, and is capable of switching shifting directions without needing inversion of a clock signal and without causing shift of pixels, and switching the shifting directions with a simple arrangement even if there are an even number of signal lines for driving effective pixel columns.