Abstract: A white cold-cathode fluorescent lamp, which is used as an illumination backlight for liquid crystal, is replaced by cold-cathode fluorescent lamps that emit red, green and blue lights, respectively. Since a liquid crystal picture is illuminated by the fluorescent lights in a time-sequential manner, a multi-color display can be provided without spatially dividing liquid crystal pixels using a color filter; and as it is not necessary for one pixel to be divided into three color cells, the size of a pixel can be reduced. Furthermore, in the liquid crystal display device, a phosphor having a short emission life is employed to coat the interior of the cold-cathode fluorescent lamp and enable the cold-cathode fluorescent lamp to be turned on and off rapidly, so that degradation of display colors due to slow fluorescence decay can be prevented and moving pictures can be displayed.