The Quadrantid shower , one of the most intense showers , has been observed at the beginning of January each year .
However , the origin of the meteors is still unknown .
It was Hasegawa ( 1979 ) who first suggested comet C/1490 Y1 to be the likely origin of the shower based on the historical records of East Asia .
We analyse the records of Jo-Seon-Wang-Jo-Sil-Lok ( the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty in ancient Korea ) and calculate the preliminary orbital elements of comet C/1490 Y1 using a modified Gauss method .
We find that comet C/1490 Y1 was a periodic one and its orbital path was very similar to that of the Quadrantid meteor stream .
The determined orbital elements are perifocal passage time Tp =2265652.2983 days ( 7.8 Jan. 1491 in UT ) , perifocal distance q =0.769 AU , eccentricity e =0.747 , semimajor axis a =3.04 AU , argument of the perifocus \omega =164 ^ { \circ } .03 , longitude of ascending node \Omega =283 ^ { \circ } .00 , and inclination i =70 ^ { \circ } .22 for the epoch of J2000.0 .
We , therefore , conclude that our result verifies the suggestion that the comet C/1490 Y1 is the origin of the Quandrantid meteor shower , but was a periodic comet .
We dicuss a possible link between this comet and the asteroid 2003 EH _ { 1 } as well .