tatami mat, counter for tatami mats, fold, shut up, do away with
畳 centers on layering and stacking: folding something flat, piling up, or the familiar tatami mat that covers a floor in layers. The counter sense is a natural extension of counting those layered mats.
畳 combines 田 (field) with 冝, a component that likely represents something stacked or layered. The character originally referred to piling or folding, and later came to mean tatami mats as layered floor coverings.
The left side is a field 田, and the right side looks like a stack of folded cloth or mats. Picture a field covered with layered tatami mats, each one folded and stacked neatly.
For ジョウ, imagine a tatami mat showroom where every mat is displayed in a neat row: show -> ジョウ, and the mats are layered like the character's stacked right side.
tatami mat (esp. as a measure of room size, either 1.82 sqm or 1.54 sqm)
tatami mat; Japanese straw floor coverings
to fold (clothes, umbrella)
four and a half tatami mats; four-and-a-half-mat room
stone paving; cobble paving; sett; flagstone
to give no leeway; to press (for an answer, etc.); to shower (questions on someone)
convolution
very spacious hall; grand space; thousand-tatami area
being placed one upon another; piling up; being atop another
facing of a tatami mat
thin tatami mat that can be placed on flooring
one mat
Triassic period
tatami mat finished on both sides
Permian period
half tatami mat
to interrupt; to jeer
to interrupt; to jeer
enjoying food, drink and entertainment in a small room
tatami mat without a "heri" edge