In this January 8, 2015 photo, a monk Kenmyo Muta bows at the condominium construction site and the gate of Sengakuji temple in Tokyo. The “47 ronin” samurai who inspired the long-loved saga of loyalty and honor eulogized in films, books and plays are fighting a new kind of battle in urban Japan. An apartment complex is going up next to the curved tile-roofed Sengakuji temple where the three-century-old graves of the ronin, or masterless samurai, lie. The banner reads: “We only hope to protect landscape of Sengakuji temple”. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Naturally, it is important that a baby learn the right habits. This woman demonstrates that smoking is wrong for babies. From a series of images parodying women's lifestyle and beauty magazines. (Photo by Jacobsen/Getty Images). 1955

Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place American flags at the graves of U.S. soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day May 26, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia. “Flags-In” has become an annual event since the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) was appointed an Army official ceremonial unit in 1948. Every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment participates in these annual ceremonies. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

New York nightclub owner Jack L Hickman spends his free time marching around Times Square with a sign that reads “The only good communist is a dead communist”. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Keystone/Getty Images). 26th April 1965

A large bull walrus returns to the shores of Prins Karl Forland after diving and feeding on clams. (Photo by Paul Nicklen/National Geographic). Svalbard, Norway, 2011

The Rainbow Warrior III, the newest ship of the enivornmental conservation organization Greenpeace, makes its way to port on the Elbe River on October 20, 2011 in Hamburg, Germany. The Rainbow Warrior III, 53 meters long, designed by Greenpeace and built in Poland and Germany, is a EUR 23 million project completed last week. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

German field telegraph operators at work in Warsaw. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1st October 1914